Turkey called to drop charges against journalists

According to the IPI's statement, a coalition of leading international free expression and press freedom groups condemned the criminal case targeting Dündar and Gül, on the eve of a trial scheduled to start on March 25.

'Dündar, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, and Gül, the newspaper’s Ankara representative, face accusations of aiding a terrorist organisation, espionage and disclosure of classified documents for reports in Cumhuriyet claiming that Turkey’s intelligence agency secretly armed Islamist rebel groups in Syria' reiterated the statement:

'Dündar and Gül were detained in November 2015 and held for nearly 100 days in Turkey’s Silivri Prison until the country’s Constitutional Court ruled that the journalists’ pre-trial detention violated their human rights. Both journalists were subsequently released pending trial following a criminal court order. Nevertheless, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed that he would neither recognise nor obey the Constitutional Court’s ruling. Moreover, prominent supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) demanded that Dündar and Gül be returned to prison and they called for Turkey’s citizens’ right to turn to the Constitutional Court to redress violations of their human rights to be curtailed.'

At least 30 journalists behind bars in Turkey

Having underscored that the persecution of the journalists was 'by no means an isolated case', 'more than 30 journalists currently languish behind bars in Turkey of whom at least 13 are being held in direct retaliation for their work' urged the press freedom groups.

The statement underlined that several 'opposition media outlets' have seen the state seizure, including the March 2016 takeover of the Zaman newspaper and Cihan News Agency.

'Recent months have also seen numerous violations of the right to press freedom in Turkey, including, among many others, the continued misuse of defamation and insult law, as well as anti-terrorism law, to target and silence those who publicly express their dissent from government policies' the coalition stressed.

Turkey facing 'trend toward authoritarianism'

Members of the coalition called on Turkey to 'free all other journalists currently detained in connection with their journalism or the opinions they have expressed'.

'The coalition further renews its previous call on lawmakers in Turkey to take steps to reverse the country’s trend toward authoritarianism and its call on governments of democratic countries to pressure the Turkish government to end its crackdown on independent media and to meet its human rights commitments under both domestic and international law' the statement added.

The statement was signed by the International Press Institute (IPI), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) , ARTICLE 19, Index on the The Ethical Journalism Network (EJN), PEN International and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO).

Kaynak: DHA