Journalists make defiant stand at opening of terror trial in Turkey
JOURNALISTS from one of Turkey’s few remaining independent newspapers told an Istanbul court yesterday they were facing persecution for being “independent, questioning and critical” 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 collapsing press freedom in Turkey under the government of Recep Tayipp Erdoğan. Turkish prosecutors accuse the journalists of being members of a terrorist organisation, mainly the Islamist Gülen movement, which Mr Erdoğan 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.
“I am not here because I knowingly and willingly helped a terrorist organisation, but because I am an independent, questioning and critical journalist,” said Kadri Gürsel, a columnist for the paper. Mr Gürsel had been a strident critic of the Gülen movement but prosecutors now say that he was in fact a secret member of the group, led by an exiled cleric in the US. Mr Gürsel faces 15 years in prison if convicted.
Others in the group of defendants, including Akin Atalay, the Cumhuriyet chief executive, face up to 43 years in prison. Out of the 17 journalists, 12 of them are being held in prison during the trial and most have been detained since the autumn of 2016.
Turkey is the world’s leading jailer of journalists, says the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, with around 160 in prison, according to the Turkish Journalists’ Association.
The deputy head of mission for the British Consulate General in Istanbul attended the opening day of the trial as well other European diplomats and a delegations of Green MEPS from Germany. Among the MEPS was Rebecca Harms, a friend of Ahmet Şik, one of those in the dock.
“It’s clearly a political trial, it’s to threaten independent journalists, especially ones like Ahmet Şik. He was one of the most known investigative journalists in Turkey and he is in prison because of his investigations and because of the quality of his articles and not because he is a terrorist,” she said.
Mr Erdoğan has strongly denied cracking down on the free press and has insisted that his government is only interested in pursuing terrorists.
In the wake of last year’s coup, Mr Erdogan and his allies have enjoyed overwhelmingly positive coverage in state media and from many private outlets, leaving Cumhuriyet as one of a only a handful or media organisations prepared to criticise the government.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are deeply concerned by the situation of Cumhuriyet newspaper executives and journalists, including their prolonged pre-trial detention.”