Turkey / Europe & Central Asia

New York, September 15, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Turkish authorities to immediately release photojournalist Çağdaş Erdoğan, and drop the anti-state charges against him. An Istanbul court on September 13 formally charged Erdoğan with terrorism, according to the volunteer journalist collective 140journos.

Court orders four Cumhuriyet managers and journalists to remain in custody for trial A Turkish court remanded four members of the Cumhuriyet newspaper yesterday who are on trial for terrorism-related charges, according to reports from their employer and Reuters.

Columnist’s passport returned Turkish authorities on September 7 returned Aslı Erdoğan, a former advisory board member of the shuttered pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem and a frequent columnist, her passport, according to the Hürriyet Daily News website, which cites Erdoğan’s lawyer.

Turkish authorities confiscate columnist’s passport Turkish police confiscated Aslı Erdoğan’s passport as the former advisory board member of the shuttered pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem and frequent columnist was on her way to Germany to accept an award for her work, according to a report yesterday on the online news site sendka.org.

New decree used to shutter three pro-Kurdish outlets The Turkey government shuttered three more pro-Kurdish media outlets yesterday, using a new decree issued under the state of emergency that has been in place since the failed attempted coup last year, the daily Cumhuriyet reported. Decree 693 was used to shutter the Dihaber news agency, the…

Court jails journalist pending trial for social media activity A court in Turkey’s southeastern Mardin province ordered Mehmet Sıddık Damar, a former reporter for the shuttered, pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA), jailed pending trial on charges of “propagandizing for a [terrorist] organization” in his social media posts, the news website Dihaber reported today. Damar had…

New York, August 11, 2017–Turkish authorities should immediately free nine journalists police arrested yesterday on terrorism charges, and should release the dozens of journalists it has for months jailed on bogus similar charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police detained the nine after the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued warrants for the…

New York, August 9, 2017–Spanish authorities should immediately and unconditionally release Hamza Yalçın, a writer for the monthly, leftist, Turkish magazine Odak Dergisi, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police arrested Yalçın, a citizen of Turkey and Sweden, at Barcelona’s El Prat airport on August 3 and now detain him pending an extradition hearing…

Police detain journalist Police detained Berivan Altan, a reporter for the news website Dihaber, at checkpoint in the southeastern province of Mersin last night because there was a warrant for her arrest, the website reported today. At the time of publication, Altan was at Mersin Courthouse waiting for a prosecutor to question her.

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