Dozens of journalists before judges

Alican Uludağ
 
The events of last week and the trials slated for next week summarise the state of the freedom of the press and expression in Turkey. With last week seeing the arrest of five press workers, two journalists were handed down sentences. This week, in turn, dozens of journalists will appear before judges in numerous press trials. The following trials will be held in the final days of October in Turkey, where more than 150 journalists and writers are in detention.
 
Following 304 days
 
Former Diken News Editor Tunca Öğreten, BirGün newspaper staffer Mahir Kanaat and News Manager of closed Dicle News Agency, Ömer Çelik, who are in detention pending trial for reporting the emails by Minister for Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak that RedHack made public, will appear before a judge following 304 days. The trial, slated to start on 24 October, will be held at Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 29 at Çağlayan. The charges raised against the journalists who reported Berat Albayrak’s emails are “making organisational propaganda”, “blocking or breaking IT systems and destroying or altering data” and “acting on behalf of an organisation without being an organisation member”. In this trial, Dİ-HA reporter Metin Yoksu, Etkin News Agency responsible editor Derya Okatan and Yolculuk newspaper responsible editor Eray Sargın, for their part, are undergoing prosecution on pretrial release. The journalists, arrested in a raid on 25 December 2016, were only brought to the judicial complex after having spent 24 days in custody.
 
Murat Aksoy and colleagues
 
There is another media trial on 24 October. The trial of thirteen people, twelve of them in pretrial detention, including journalists Murat Aksoy and Atilla Taş, will continue at Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 25. The court bench passed a release order at the first hearing in which the journalists stood charged of being part of “FETO’s media formation”. The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, citing these releases as grounds, suspended the court bench and the prosecutor, and appointed another bench to conduct the trial.
 
The Büyükada trial begins
 
The trial of the rights defenders arrested in a 5 July raid on a meeting into coping with stress and data security on Büyükada will also commence on 25 October. Amnesty International’s Turkey Branch Director İdil Eser, Citizens’ Assembly members Özlem Dalkıran and Nalan Erkem, Women’s Coalition member İlknur Üstün, human rights activists Ali Gharavi and Peter Steudtner, Human Rights Agenda Association members Günal Kurşun and Veli Acu, Nejat Taştan of the Equal Rights Watch Association and Şeynus Özbekli of the Rights Initiative will appear before Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 35. With Taner Kılıç accused of organisation membership, the other individuals will appear before a judge charged with aiding a terrorist organisation. Eight people in this case are in pretrial detention.
 
Solidarity in the dock, too
 
The hearing of the thirteen journalists and writers who took part in the closed Özgür Gündem newspaper’s “Duty Editor” campaign is also scheduled for 26 October. The hearing of the trial in which General Chair of the press trade union affiliated to the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions, Faruk Eren, Evrensel columnists İhsan Çaralan and Fehim Işık and journalists Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, Celal Başlangıç, Celalettin Can, Öncü Akgül, Hüseyin Akyol, Ömer Ağın, Dilşah Kocakaya, Mehmet Şirin Taşdemir, Veysel Kemer and Yüksel Oğuz are being prosecuted will be at Serious Crime Court No 14 at the Istanbul Judicial Complex in Çağlayan.
 
Cumhuriyet hearing into its first year
 
On 31 October, on the other hand, the fourth session of the Cumhuriyet trial will be heard. This hearing of the trial, in which our Executive Board Chair Akın Atalay, our Editor-in-Chief Murat Sabuncu, our reporter Ahmet Şık and accounting employee Emre İper are in detention pending trial, coincides with the first anniversary of the Cumhuriyet operation conducted on 31 October 2016. With news reports, columns and social media posts included in the indictment as “evidence”, the court bench has posed questions about Cumhuriyet’s editorial policy throughout the hearings.
 
Özgür Gündem trial
 
On the same day, the main trial into the closed Özgür Gündem newspaper will commence at Çağlayan judicial complex. Responsible Editor İnan Kızılkaya, who has been detained for 426 days and proprietor Kemal Sancılı, who has been in detention since January along with author Aslı Erdoğan, linguist Necmiye Alpay, journalist Bilir Kaya, publisher Ragıp Zarakolu, lawyer Eren Keskin and politician Filiz Koçali, who are on release pending trial, will appear before a judge with their imprisonment sought for tens of years.
 
Fresh operations
 
With the press trials continuing, last week also witnessed the fresh arrests of journalists. Last Friday an early-morning police raid was staged in Ankara on the homes of Jin News and Mezopatamya Agency reporters. Jin News editor Sibel Yükler and reporters Duygu Erol and Habibe Eren along with Mezopatamya Agency reporters Diren Yurtsever and Selman Güleryüz were arrested and taken to Ankara police headquarters. In Istanbul, conversely, ETHA staffers Havva Cuştan and İstimnaz Temel were arrested on 19 October.