On October 30, some 45 journalists were dismissed without notice from the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, which had held the title of the largest print newspaper in circulation in Turkey for decades. The dismissals marked a continued upheaval at the newspaper, which was formerly owned by the independent Doğan Media Group but was sold to a [...]
By MEHVEŞ EVİN / Independent media share how they manage to carry on amid government repression
The release last month of Turkish-Kurdish journalist Idris Sayılğan, after more than 1,000 days in prison, was a joyous moment. But the timing of the release raises – once more – questions about political influence over Turkey's judiciary, coming just as the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is examining Sayilgan's case in what could [...]
On November 28, an International Press Institute (IPI) delegation spent a day in Istanbul’s Justice Palace to monitor four different journalists’ trials. The cases reflected the breadth of Turkey’s ongoing crackdown on the press. Trial in absentia Our first court hearing was due to start at 9.05 against Can Dündar, former editor of the secular [...]
• Over 120 journalists remain in jail in Turkey • Over 100 terror-related investigations opened since Turkey’s incursion into Syria • Fair trial principles routinely breached • New efforts to stifle online media • Is the judicial reform strategy a sham or an opportunity? The International Press Institute (IPI) recently led a press freedom mission to [...]
The International Press Institute (IPI) today welcomed the acquittal on all charges of leading Turkey journalist and IPI Executive Board member Kadri Gürsel after three years of arbitrary judicial harassment. However, IPI condemned yesterday’s decision by the same court to confirm the sentences of 12 of Gürsel’s co-defendants in the Cumhuriyet trial in defiance of [...]
On Thursday, November 21, leading Turkish journalist Kadri Gürsel, an Executive Board member of the International Press Institute (IPI), will be back in court for the start of a re-trial on terrorism-related charges. Gürsel will be joined by 12 former colleagues from the pro-secular newspaper Cumhuriyet. The re-trial is the latest staging post in the [...]
The International Press Institute (IPI) highlighted the continued jailing of over 120 journalists in Turkey as a deep stain on the country’s human rights record at the launch of a joint report by eight international press freedom and journalism organizations on the status of press freedom in the country. Turkey’s Journalists in the Dock: The [...]
The International Press Institute (IPI) urged Turkish authorities today to immediately release two journalists detained last night in Giresun, northern Turkey, where they were investigating the death of an 11-year-old girl, Rabia Naz Vatan, in an alleged hit-and-run incident April 2018. Investigative journalist Canan Coşkun and journalist and documentary filmmaker Kazım Kızıl had traveled to [...]
The International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists for press freedom, today expressed outrage at the re-arrest of prominent Turkish journalist and novelist Ahmet Altan just days after his release from prison. Altan, a veteran journalist and former editor-in-chief of the now-closed Taraf newspaper, had been freed from [...]