Ten Kurdish journalists spent another 24 hours in police custody after an Ankara prosecutor extended the detention period for the second time on Wednesday. The journalists, six women and four men from Mezopotamya and Jin News agencies, have refused to testify at the police station, saying they had been subjected to mistreatment, Mezopotamya reported.
The prosecutor had placed a restriction on the case along with the extension, and journalists were not allowed to consult with their lawyers until Thursday evening.
The journalists said they will only testify at the court, as they were subjected to torture and mistreatment by the police.
Journalist Derya Ren was separated and sent to prison as she had a finalised sentence from a previous conviction. Ren told her lawyer that she was forced into a strip search while she was transferred to a cell. When she refused, Ren was beaten and dragged by her hair.
Jin News reporter Öznur Değer was also beaten and dragged on the floor, she told her lawyers.
Another journalist, Berivan Altan, was told to “not make it difficult” during the house raid. Altan told her lawyer that the police threatened to “make (her) bow (her) head”.
During the arrest, Altan was handled roughly and her arms were handcuffed and bent backwards behind her back.
Türkiye'de bu sabah: Bir gazeteci böyle gözaltına alındı. pic.twitter.com/2XXTvNUWap
— Altan Sancar (@altansancarr) October 25, 2022
An 11th journalist, Zemo Ağgöz, was released from custody on Wednesday night as she has a newborn baby who still needs to nurse. Ağgöz will remain in house arrest. “I am happy to be out, but everybody else is still in custody. My joy is cut short. I hope they are all released soon,” she said. “We were asked questions and we said journalism was not a crime.”
The arrests follow the Turkish parliament’s adoption of new measures to ‘combat disinformation’. The new law, dubbed the censorship act by opposition groups, introduces a new crime of knowingly disseminating disinformation, and includes vague wording that could be misused by the courts, activists and opponents say. Critics fear the new legislation will be used to silence critical voices in the media and suffocate Turkish-language social media.
Individuals and organisations in Turkey and abroad have expressed solidarity with the Kurdish journalists. “Turkey regularly abuses anti-terror law to target journalists, who are frequently subject to arbitrary charges and imprisonment. The detentions fit a pattern of serious attacks on press freedom in Turkey,” the International Press Institute (IPI) said.
