Turkish journalists on terror charges ‘being persecuted’
JOURNALISTS from one of Turkey’s few remaining independent newspapers told an Istanbul court they were facing persecution for being “independent, questioning and critical” yesterday at the start of their trial on terrorism charges.
Seventeen reporters, editors, columnists and cartoonists from the ‘Cumhuriyet’ newspaper appeared in court for the opening of a case which has become a symbol of the collapsing press freedom in Turkey under the government of Recep Tayipp Erdogan.
Turkish prosecutors accuse the journalists of being members of a terrorist organisation, mainly the Islamist Gulen movement which Mr Erdogan blames for last year’s attempted coup against him.
But in defiant statements before an Istanbul courtroom packed with human rights activists and foreign diplomats, the journalists said they were victims of a government crackdown on a free press.
“I am not here because I knowingly and willingly helped a terrorist organisation, but because I am an independent, questioning and critical journalist,” said columnist Kadri Gursel.
He had been a strident critic of the Gulen movement but prosecutors now say he was a secret member of the group, which is led by an exiled cleric in the US. Mr Gursel faces 15 years in prison if convicted. Other defendants, like ‘Cumhuriyet’ chief executive Akin Atalay, face up to 43 years in prison.
Of the 17 journalists, 12 are being held in prison during the trial and most have been detained since the autumn of 2016. Their newspaper has run a black banner with their pictures and the number of days each has been detained.
Turkey is the world’s leading jailer of journalists, according to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, with an estimated 150 held in prison. The ‘Cumhuriyet’ case has drawn international attention as a result.
European diplomats and a delegation of Green MEPs from Germany attended the opening day of the trial.
Mr Erdogan has strongly denied cracking down on the free press and has insisted his government is only interested in pursuing terrorists. “No one is jailed because of journalism here,” he told the BBC.
Supporters of the jailed journalists gathered in front of the court and released dozens of multi-coloured balloons, chanting: “Don’t be silenced! A free media is a right!” A group of ‘Cumhuriyet’ reporters marched to the court, some holding copies of the newspaper.
‘Cumhuriyet’ has long been associated with secularism and a defence of the Turkish republican model established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey. (© Daily Telegraph, London)