Harassment of media since March 2013

Reporters Without Borders is resuming its news feed with updates about harassment of news providers in Turkey. 29.04.2013 – Only three journalists released at KCK trials Reporters Without Borders welcomes the provisional release of two journalists on 26 April by an Istanbul court that is trying a large number of Kurdish media personnel for alleged membership of a “media committee” created by the outlawed Union of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK). RWB is nonetheless deeply disappointed by the very limited nature of the measure. A total of 24 defendants who are Kurdish media employees and journalists are still detained. The two reporters released on 26 April, at the end of four days of hearings, were Zeynep Ceren Kuray of the Firat news agency and Sadik Topaloglu of the Diha news agency. Their 24 colleagues continue to be held on the grounds that “they could try to escape” and that the sentences requested by the prosecution are “very severe.” The next session of hearings will be held from 17 to 19 June, when the court will again consider their requests for provisional release. The court expects that by then the police will have arrested other Kurdish media personnel for whom warrants have been issued. It also plans to analyze the transcripts of phone calls about two journalists, Ertus Bozkurt and Yüksel Genç. Defence lawyer Firat Epözdemir argued during last week hearings that his clients are being prosecuted solely because they covered issues concerning Turkey’s Kurdish ethnic minority and that continuation of the trial is therefore inconsistant with the peace talks currently under way between the government and the Kurdish armed PKK. “The (PKK) press conference in Mount Qandil (in northern Iraq) on 25 April was attended by about 100 reporters working mainly for Turkish media,” he said. “They included representatives of the government news agency Anatolia. In this context, I do not understand why our journalists are being tried.” Another defence lawyer, Ercan Kanar, said: “The quality of journalism is regulated solely by the criteria of professional ethics. It should not be debated in a court hearing. The journalists here in this courtroom have already won their place in the world history of media freedom.” The court meanwhile drew the attention of prosecutors to the use by some defendants of expressions such as “so-called trial,” “defamatory indictment” and “so-called indictment.” Two Reporters Without Borders representatives attended the first day of the 12th session of hearings on 22 April as part of an RWB investigation into the impact that the government’s negotiations with Kurdish separatists could have on media freedom in Turkey. The two RWB representatives then spent three days in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir meeting with civil society representatives and journalists. Their request to visit Tayyip Temel, a journalist jailed in Diyarbakir since October 2011, was denied. In another trial involving allegations of KCK membership, a court in the southern city of Adana released Diha reporter Zeynep Kuris and five other defendants conditionally on 24 April. Arrested on 3 November along with Halime Parlak and Ergin Caglar of Azadiya Welat, she is still charged with KCK membership. Kuris and fellow reporter Özlem Agus made a name for themselves by investigating the mistreatment of adolescent detainees in Pozanti prison (in Adana province). She will be subject to judicial control until the next hearing, scheduled for 3 July. -------- 29.04.2013 – Four journalists still facing long jail terms in Ergenekon trial Reporters Without Borders continues to closely follow the five-year-old “Ergenekon” trial in Silivri, 60 km northwest of Istanbul, where the 288th hearing was held on 26 April. A total of 275 defendants, of whom 66 are in preventive detention, are accused of participating in an ultranationalist and secularist conspiracy to topple the government. The defendant Bedirhan Sinal testified that the police provided him with a grenade to throw at the headquarters of the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet (Republic). He said he ended up throwing a home-made gasoline bomb instead of the grenade in order to spare lives. In his testimony, Sinal also told the court that “an organization within the police has used me since a very young age and has occasionally shut its eyes to my criminal activity.” In his summation to the court on 18 March, prosecutor Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel said “the existence of a terrorist organization is established” and requested life sentences without possibility of pardon for more than 60 of the defendants, including the journalists Mustafa Balbay and Tuncay Özkan, who have been detained for the past five years. Long jail terms were also requested for more than 90 other defendants including the journalists Yalçin Küçük and Güler Kömürcü Öztürk. During the 26 April hearing, Özkan’s lawyer, Hüseyin Ersöz, urged a parliamentary commission that is investigating illegal phone tapping to evaluate the prosecution’s evidence against his client from the human rights perspective. Balbay and Mehmet Haberal, a defendant who – like Balbay – is still in detention despite having been elected to parliament in 2011, issued a joint statement calling on the authorities to “end this disgrace.” “The accusations brought against us relate solely to the rights to create a political party and to express and disseminate our ideas,” the statement said. “None of these activities involves any violence and they are all guaranteed by the constitution.” ----- 27.03.2013 - Opposition newspaper owner attacked in northwest Reporters Without Borders condemns today’s attack on local journalist Cenap Kürümoglu in Tekirdag, in the northwestern region of Eastern Thrace, and hopes the local police will conduct a full and impartial investigation. The owner of the local daily Habertrak (Thrace Info), Kürümoglu was assaulted in the city centre by two masked men, who hit him with clubs and then fled when he called for help. He was briefly hospitalized with an eye injury. Police investigating the attack seized security camera recordings from shops on the street block where it took place. Kürümoglu said he thought the attack was linked to Habertrak’s editorial policies. The newspaper is critical of the local government and supports the nationalist and secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), the largest opposition party in the national assembly. “One of my assailants was short and the other was tall,” Kürümoglu said when he left hospital. “The henchmen of those who are robbing the city of Tekirdag are responsible. This kind of action will not intimidate me. There won’t be the least change in my newspaper’s editorial line, not with the first attack nor the fifth one.” This is the second case of violence against media personnel in the past two weeks. Two reporters were attacked by residents while covering the demolition of their homes in Ankara on 14 March. ----- 26.03.2013 - Ahmet Sik still facing seven-year jail term for contempt The trial of well-known investigative journalist Ahmet Sik for contempt of court resumed today before a criminal court in Silivri, 60 km west of Istanbul. Reporters Without Borders reiterates its call for the immediate withdrawal of the absurd charges brought against him. Sik is facing up to seven years in jail in connection with the comments he made on his release from Silivri prison on 12 March 2012 after a year in preventive detention as one of the defendants in the Oda TV trial. “One day, those who hatched this plot, and the policemen, prosecutors and judges who carried it out, will in turn be incarcerated in this prison,” Sik said outside the prison. “Justice will reappear on the day they enter it,” he added. A total of 39 prosecutors and judges in charge of the “Ergenekon” investigation brought complaints against Sik, accusing him of threatening and insulting them in connection with their duties. Four other judges may also file complaints. The next hearing is scheduled for 31 May.