Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of June 16, 2019
Journalist turns himself in, released the same day Yavuz Selim Demirağ, a columnist for the nationalist daily Yeni Çağ who was attacked by a group of men who beat him with baseball bats in May, was released from prison under judicial control around midnight the day he turned himself in, Deutsche Welle reported on June…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of June 9, 2019
Journalist in jail for insulting presidentOn June 13, Yavuz Selim Demirağ, a columnist for the nationalist daily Yeni Çağ, started an 11-month and 20-day prison sentence for “insulting the president,” according to his column published the same day. The column featured an update from the newspaper that said that the journalist had turned himself and…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of June 2, 2019
German journalist accused of insulting president A prosecutor in Ankara has started an investigation into German journalist Süheyla Kaplan who is accused of “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and terrorism propaganda, Deutsche Welle reported. Evidence cited against the journalist includes a political cartoon of the Turkey’s president that she shared on Twitter, social media post…
Harsh conditions for Askarov, the Kyrgyz journalist UN says should be freed
On a recent morning in Bazar-Korgon, southern Kyrgyzstan, Khadicha Askarova was giving hasty instructions to her daughter about what needed to be packed. They were about to set off: first for the capital Bishkek, some 600km from where they live, and then another 70km to a prison colony where her husband, Azimjon Askarov, was transferred…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of May 26, 2019
More journalists beaten in Turkey On May 25, three men beat Selahattin Önkibar, a columnist for the ultranationalist opposition news website Odatv, near his house in Ankara, the leftist daily Evrensel reported. Önkibar is the fifth journalist to be attacked in Turkey this month, in apparent retaliation for their work, CPJ has found.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of May 19, 2019
7 journalists sentenced in Özgür Gündem trial An Istanbul Court on May 21 sentenced seven journalists from the shuttered pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem to prison after they were convicted of “making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization,” the Mezopotamya News Agency reported.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of May 12, 2019
Journalists beaten, hospitalized in Ankara and Antalya At least six men used baseball bats to beat Yavuz Selim Demirağ, a columnist for the nationalist daily Yeni Çağ, in Ankara on the evening of May 10, the same day that he appeared as a guest on a political talk show on the nationalist Türkiyem TV, his…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of May 5, 2019
Journalist sentenced to 10 months in prison An Istanbul court on May 7 sentenced Cansu Pişkin, a reporter for the leftist daily Evrensel, to 10 months in prison for “making a target of a civil servant for terrorist organizations,” the television news website Medyascope reported. The court suspended Pişkin’s sentence barring a repeated offense in…
Bulgaria’s press navigate harassment, threats in pursuit of stories
In October 2018, Viktoria Marinova, a host for TVN, was raped and murdered near the station’s studios. When CPJ’s Europe correspondent, Attila Mong, spoke with her colleagues and other journalists during a trip to Bulgaria last month, they said that while they don’t believe the attack is linked to Marinova’s work, it has highlighted the…
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of April 28, 2019
Cumhuriyet appeal rejected by local court An Istanbul court on April 30 rejected a stay of execution request from lawyers representing eight staff from the daily Cumhuriyet, the news website T24 reported. The lawyers asked authorities to not act on a local appeals court ruling that upheld their sentencing until the Supreme Court had ruled…