Kurdish press workers Mehmet Aslan and Erdoğan Alayumat, arrested in a series of raids by Turkish police and accused of membership of a terrorist organisation on the basis of their journalistic activities, will be subject to a new investigation after having bail conditions lifted in an Istanbul court. Bail conditions imposed on a third reporter, Esra Solîn Dal, were dropped while her case proceeds.
Charges against the three journalists, arrested during a series of police raids in Istanbul, Ankara and Şanlıurfa (Riha) on 23 April, were based entirely on the content of professionally published articles concerning Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, the defendants and defence lawyers said.
“Of the reports I prepared, 65 are being used as evidence because they relate to the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan,” Dal stated, while also pointing to consistent transparency in her work process, including the use of an author signature.
During their defence, Aslan and Alayumat also stressed that they had been incriminated on the basis of their journalistic work, comparing media restrictions and censorship in Turkey to relative international freedoms.
Turkey faces increasing challenges to press freedom under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, according to a recent Reporters Without Borders (RSF) report, which ranks the country 158th out of 180 nations. Incidents of police violence against journalists are frequently documented, with some, like Dal, reporting strip searches in detention, such as in Bakırköy Women’s Prison following her arrest.
The hearing was adjourned to 17 February, as the court informed Aslan and Alayumat that they would be subject to another investigation for alleged membership of a terrorist organisation, pending the outcome of an undisclosed case.
