TURKEY TRIES JOURNALISTS ON ‘TERROR’ CHARGE
The 17 staff members of newspaper Cumhuriyet were detained last year after the failed coup attempt in July
Staff members from one of Turkey’s most respected opposition newspapers yesterday rejected as absurd the terror charges against them.
On the first day of a trial that has intensified alarm over press freedom under president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the 17 defendants from the
Cumhuriyet daily were applauded by those in the Istanbul courtroom.
The staff, including writers, cartoonists and executives, were detained in October and a dozen of them have now spent more than eight months in jail without being convicted of any crime.
They have been held under a state of emergency imposed after the failed coup in July aimed at ousting Mr Erdogan, which the authorities blame on the US-based preacher, Fethullah Gulen.
Supporters released dozens of multi-coloured balloons outside the courthouse, chanting: “Do not be silenced. A free media is a right.”
If convicted, the defendants face terms of up to 43 years in jail.
In an extraordinary coincidence, the trial opened on Turkey’s national day of the press, which marks the end of official censorship in the Ottoman Empire in 1908 under Sultan Abdulhamid II.
Those in court included some of the best-known names in Turkish journalism, including the columnist Kadri Gursel, the paper’s editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, cartoonist Musa Kart and its chairman, Akin Atalay.
They are charged with supporting in the newspaper’s writings, three groups Turkey considers to be terrorists – the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the ultra-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front and Mr Gulen’s movement, which Ankara calls the Fethullah Terror Organisation (Feto). The indictment accuses Cumhuriyet of beginning a “perception operation” with the aim of starting an “asymmetric war” against Mr Erdogan.
But supporters insist the paper has always been bitterly critical of the three groups, including Mr Gulen’s organisation. Mr Gulen denies any link to the failed coup.
“To say I was in contact with Feto members is illogical and against good sense,” Mr Gursel told the court. “There is nothing to justify my jailing – nothing apart from slander.”
Mr Atalay said it was the authorities who were scared. “But Cumhuriyet will not give in. Independence and liberty are written into the DNA of the paper.”
Cumhuriyet, which was set up in 1924 and is Turkey’s oldest mainstream national title, has been a thorn in the side of Mr Erdogan in recent years.
It is one of the few genuine opposition voices in the press, which is dominated by strongly pro-government media and bigger mainstream dailies that are increasingly wary of challenging the authorities.
Also being tried in the case is the investigative journalist Ahmet Sik, who in 2011 wrote an explosive book, The Imam’s
Army, exposing the grip Mr Gulen’s movement had on the Turkish state.
Eleven of the 17, including Gursel, Sabuncu, Kart and Sik, are in custody while the others are free.
Since their arrests, Cumhuriyet has continued publishing the columns of the jailed journalists, but with a blank white space instead of text.
“This trial is a test for Turkey,” said Aydin Engin, one of the writers on trial who was freed after his arrest.
“Erdogan says justice is balanced in Turkey. Now we will see.”
Being tried in his absence is the paper’s former editor-in-chief, Can Dundar, who was last year sentenced to five years and 10 months in jail over a front-page story accusing the government of sending weapons to Syria.
He has now fled Turkey for Germany.
The opposition fears the emergency has been used to go after anyone who dares to defy the government and the trial is seen as a test for press freedom under Mr Erdogan.
Turkey ranks 155th on the latest Reporters without Borders world press freedom index, below Belarus and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The P24 press freedom group says there are 166 journalists behind bars in Turkey, most of whom were arrested under the state of emergency.
Mr Erdogan, however, insisted this month that there were only “two real journalists” behind bars in Turkey and anyone else jailed was for offences, including robbing ATMs.
“It is journalism in Turkey, not just Cumhuriyet, that is being put on trial,” said Reporters without Borders secretary general, Christophe Deloire.
The UN working group on arbitrary detention, in an opinion released last month, said it found that the detention of the staff members was arbitrary and that they should be immediately released and given the right to compensation.
Filiz Kerestecioglu, an MP from the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party, said: “According to the government, all of the opposition are terrorists. The only ones that are not terrorists are themselves.”
The trial opened on Turkey’s national day of the press, which marks the end of censorship under the Ottoman Empire