• Press Release

Courts in Turkey being used to strangle media freedom

February 19, 2019

Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart of the Cumhuriyet (L) hugs his wife after being freed from Silivri prison on July 28, 2017 following a Turkish court order to free the seven defendants. The hugely controversial trial in Istanbul of 17 writers, cartoonists and executives from the Cumhuriyet daily newspaper on "terror" charges -- ridiculed as absurd by supporters -- began earlier this week. After five days of intense hearings, the judge ordered that seven suspects, including cartoonist Musa Kart, be released ahead of the next hearing under judicial supervision, meaning they have to report to the authorities regularly. / AFP PHOTO / YASIN AKGUL / The erroneous mention appearing in the metadata of this photo by YASIN AKGUL has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart of the Cumhuriyet (L) hugs his wife after being freed from Silivri prison on July 28, 2017 following a Turkish court order to free the seven defendants.] instead of [Supporters hoist posters while they wait for the release of seven people from Silivri prison in Istanbul on July 28, 2017 following a Turkish court order to free the defendants. ]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention from all your online services and delete it from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require. (Photo credit should read YASIN AKGUL/AFP/Getty Images)

Responding to the decision of a Turkish first instance appeals court to uphold the conviction of journalists and executives from the Cumhuriyet newspaper, Amnesty International’s Turkey Strategy and Research Manager, Andrew Gardner said:

“Today’s ruling to send the former Cumhuriyet staff back to prison exposes yet again the way in which politically motivated trials and unsound court decisions are simply rubber stamped by an equally biased appeals process.

“The prosecution of scores of journalists and other media workers is an ongoing affront to press freedom and to justice. By using the courts to increase their stranglehold on the media, the authorities have once again displayed the ugly side of Turkey’s broken judicial system. This should ring alarm bells for anyone who cares about freedom of expression.”

Background

According to one of the lawyers in the case former Cumhuriyet staff, journalist Hakan Karasinir, cartoonist Musa Kart, lawyers Bülent Utku and Mustafa Kemal Güngor, readers’ ombudsman Güray Öz, executive Önder Çelik and accountant Emre İper will be sent back to prison to complete their sentences, all of which are less than five years.

The paper’s former editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, former investigative journalist Ahmet Şık who is now an opposition MP, Hikmet Çetinkaya, Orhan Erinç, executive Akın Atalay and veteran columnist Aydın Engin will appeal against their sentences, all longer than five years, at a higher court.