Multiple journalists are on trial in Istanbul courts on what the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called “baseless and harrassing charges”.
According to the CPJ on 21 October a court in Istanbul rejected an appeal by exiled journalist Can Dündar, who was charged with alleged anti-state activities, thereby allowing authorities to seize his assets in Turkey.
On 22 October an Istanbul court convicted and sentenced to 15 months the freelance journalist Sabiha Temizkan. She was charged with making terrorist propaganda after she posted a tweet in 2014 about the fall of an Iraqi village to the Islamic State.
Two Turkish Bloomberg reporters, Kerim Karakaya and Fercan Yalınkılıç, as well as three other journalists and 33 other co-defendants, were charged with sharing “false, wrong, or deceptive information” to affect financial markets, which can carry a penalty of up to five years in prison. Their trial is in progress.
“Turkish authorities persist in filing baseless and harassing charges against journalists for doing their jobs”, said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia programme coordinator. “None of these journalists has committed any crime, let alone sharing terrorist propaganda, spreading false information about the economy, or any other ludicrous charge authorities may try to cook up”.
