Hurriyet Daily News reported that the raid came as Cumhuriyet was preparing to distribute an issue with a four-page supplement containing material from the latest issue of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in a gesture of solidarity following last week’s deadly attack on the magazine’s Paris office.
Police reportedly detained trucks at Cumhuriyet’s printing press in Istanbul under Turkey’s press law to prevent distribution of the newspaper’s Jan. 14 edition.
UPDATE*: Initial reports indicated that prosecutors allowed delivery to resume after determining that no images of Mohammed were present. However, later reports said that two columnists included small images of the cover of Charlie Hebdo‘s Jan. 14, 2015 issue in their columns. It was not immediately clear whether prosecutors overlooked the images or allowed delivery to resume despite their presence. Cumhuriyet’s editor-in-chief reportedly said the decision to include the small images was the choice of the individual columnists.
“Preventing a newspaper from distributing copies until government officials approve its contents is an unacceptable form of censorship and sets another dangerous precedent for Turkey,” IPI Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M. Ellis said. “Are all media in the country now to be held hostage by the possibility that someone, somewhere might point to a perceived grievance to justify committing crime?
“Turkish authorities should be delivering a strong message on how important free speech is to justice and good governance – even though some people may occasionally be offended, shocked or disturbed – and that violence is never justified. Instead, this raid sends a signal that the right to speak freely is subject to the whims of those willing to shed blood.”
Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Utku Çakırözer said that his newspaper actually had sought to respect religious sensibilities and deliberately refrained from featuring the cover of this week’s issue of Charlie Hebdo, which features a cartoon depicting Mohammed shedding a tear and holding a “Je suis Charlie” banner.
Noting that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu travelled to Paris to march in favour of free speech last Sunday, Çakırözer said in an interview today with CNN Türk that “free speech should be defended by the whole of society” and that he hoped for “messages of common sense” after twoCumhuriyet columnists were targeted in threats posted online.
*This statement was revised on Jan. 15, 2015.
