turkey crackdown chronicle

346 results

Ali Ünal

Ali Ünal, a columnist and lead writer for the shuttered Turkish daily Zaman, was arrested shortly after the failed coup of 2016 and later found guilty of “founding and leading an armed terrorist organization.” In late 2018, he was sentenced to 19 years and six months in prison. Police detained Ünal at his house in…

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Mutlu Çölgeçen

Mutlu Çölgeçen, a former news coordinator for the shuttered daily newspaper Millet, is one of several journalists imprisoned after the failed 2016 coup attempt. In 2018, he was found guilty of being a member of a terrorist organization. The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld his conviction in March 2020. Police detained Çölgeçen in Istanbul on…

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Emre Soncan

Emre Soncan is one of several journalists imprisoned after the failed 2016 coup attempt. In 2018, he was found guilty of being a member of a terrorist organization.  On July 24, 2016, Soncan, a former military affairs correspondent for the shuttered daily newspaper Zaman, wrote on Twitter that he had learned that police were at…

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Yetkin Yıldız

Yetkin Yıldız, chief editor of the news website Aktifhaber, is one of several journalists imprisoned after the failed 2016 coup attempt. He has twice been charged in joint trials. He was acquitted of charges that linked him to the coup attempt, in 2018 he was found guilty of being a member of a terrorist organization.  An…

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Meltem Oktay

The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s verdict that sentenced Meltem Oktay, a former reporter for the shuttered pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA), and fellow reporter Uğur Akgül to four years in prison on charges of producing propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in connection with material they published to social…

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Ahmet Sağırlı

Istanbul police on August 10, 2017, detained Ahmet Sağırlı, who was a columnist for the pro-government daily Türkiye until he was fired a week before his arrest, according to news reports. CPJ was unable to determine the reason for the journalist’s dismissal. Sağırlı was one of 35 journalists and media workers whose arrest a Turkish…

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Yusuf Duran

Istanbul police on August 10, 2017, detained Yusuf Duran, a former page designer for the mainstream daily Vatan, according to news reports. Duran was one of 35 journalists and media workers whose arrest a Turkish court mandated the week before as part of a sweeping purge of suspected followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, according…

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Ömer Faruk Aydemir

Istanbul police on August 10, 2017, detained Ömer Faruk Aydemir, news editor for the right-wing İhlas News Agency (İHA), according to news reports. Aydemir was one of 35 journalists and media workers whose arrest a Turkish court mandated the week before as part of a sweeping purge of suspected followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen,…

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Burak Ekici

Istanbul police on August 10, 2017, detained Burak Ekici, the former editor for the online edition of the socialist daily Birgün, his paper reported. Ekici was one of 35 journalists and media workers whose arrest a Turkish court mandated the week before as part of a sweeping purge of suspected followers of exiled preacher Fethullah…

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Yasir Kaya

Istanbul police on August 12, 2017, detained Yasir Kaya, the former news editor for Fenerbahçe TV, a sports channel that shares its name with a sports club, the daily Cumhuriyet reported. Kaya was one of 35 journalists and media workers whose arrest a Turkish court mandated the week before as part of a sweeping purge…

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