The new Turkey |
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19-Apr-2019 9:32 |
6 journalists given suspended sentences for ‘terrorist propaganda’Six Turkish journalists were given 15-month suspended sentences on Wednesday on charges of disseminating terrorist propaganda while serving as the symbolic editor-in-chief for a day of the now-closed Kurdish Özgür Gündem daily in 2016, the Medyascope news platform reported. Apart from journalists Faruk Eren, Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, Celal Başlangıç, İhsan Çaralan, Fehim Işık and Öncü Akgül, Celalettin Can was also given 15 months in prison but his sentence was not suspended. A solidarity campaign for Özgür Gündem, the one-day symbolic editor-in-chief routine, was conducted between May and August 2016, in which 56 journalists, lawyers and human rights activists participated. Forty-nine of them were subject to prosecution, and the newspaper was closed by government decree in October 2016 after a failed coup that gave the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vast authorities under a subsequent state of emergency. 28 March 2019:
Özgür Gündem solidarity trial adjourned until October
The journalists face terrorism and incitement charges stemming from the newspaper's coverage on the days the symbolically acted as co-editors of the publication. The newspaper's jailed responsible news editor, İnan Kızılkaya, is a defendant in each case because Turkish law holds him responsible for all content the newspaper publishes. Kızılkaya was present at court, Bianet reported. |