Turkey

There has been a wave of searches and arrests of investigative journalists in Istanbul and Ankara in connection with a probe into an alleged anti-government plot. Journalists who have helped to shed light on this case are being made to pay for the tension between the government and the secularist and ultra-nationalist opposition, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans...

The offices of the "People's Daily" ( Halkin Gunlugu) newspaper, the Democratic Peoples Association and the home of members of the Democratic Peoples Federation (DHF) in seven provinces and counties were raided by the police. Twenty-three people were taken into custody, among them two journalists - the paper's editor-in-chief, Hidir Gurz, and the paper's representative in Mersin, Deniz Kismetli...

An Istanbul court on Friday ordered three online journalists detained on charges of “inciting hatred and hostility through the media,” membership of a “terrorist organisation” and obtaining and publishing confidential state documents. They are facing possible sentences of more than 20 years in jail, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported They are Soner Yalçin...

There was modest progress at the latest hearing in the trial of 19 people charged with the murder of Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink, who was gunned down outside his office in Istanbul in January 2007, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Prosecutors announced at the hearing, held on February 7, that a preliminary investigation has been...

Journalist Adem Yavuz Arslan was threatened several times since his book on the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was published two weeks ago, IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) has reported. The book revealed volatile information on the murder. Arslan has applied for police protection. Arslan, Ankara correspondent for the Bugün ('Today') newspaper, was threatened by means of a...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has filed a lawsuit against writer Ahmet Altan and Taraf newspaper. According to IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET), the prime minister recently launched a case against the Beyoglu Troupe of Actors and prior to that, against writers Ataol Behramoglu and Oktay Eksi. Erdogan is now claiming TL50,000 (€ 25,000) in compensation from Altan and Taraf, on...

A violent raid was carried out by Turkish police late last year on the offices of a far-left Turkish weekly following which five people were held, according to delayed reports received by Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The raid took place on the offices of Yürüyüs and was described officially as an operation to arrest a member of a terrorist organisation. It has...

Ogün Samast, the youth who is accused of fatally shooting Hrant Dink, the Armenian-Turkish editor of the weekly Agos, outside his office in Istanbul on January 19, 2007, could be released within 12 months as a result of the extremely slow pace at which his murder trial is proceeding, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Arrested on January 20, 2007 at a...

The former editorial manager and concessionaire of the Kurdish newspaper Azadiya Welat, Emine Demir, received a prison sentence of 138 years on charges of "spreading propaganda for the PKK", the militant Kurdistan Workers Party. The sentence is based on articles Demir accepted for publication in the paper, according to IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET). The 24-year-old journalist was convicted...

The LambdaIstanbul Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Solidarity Association has protested against a fine issued by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) to the HabertUrk television station after the station broadcast a discussion on homosexuality. The members of the association called on RTUK president Davut Dursun to apologise for putting forward that the programme on the subject...