“Turkish authorities should immediately release the journalists who were arrested in Diyarbakır for no apparent reason,” Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator said.
As part of the investigation conducted by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, 16 journalists out of 22 people detained on 8 June were remanded in custody on Thursday.
JINNEWS editor Safiye Alagaş, DFG (Dicle Fırat Journalists Association) co-chair Serdar Altan, MA (Mezopotamya Agency) editor Aziz Oruç, Xwebûn Editor-in-Chief Mehmet Ali Ertaş, Zeynel Abidin Bulut, Ömer Çelik, Mazlum Doğan Güler, İbrahim Koyuncu, Neşe Toprak, Elif Üngür, Abdurrahman Öncü, Suat Doğuhan, Remziye Temel, Ramazan Geciken, Lezgin Akdeniz and Mehmet Şahin were sent to prison by the judge on duty.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement regarding the jailed journalists and said, Turkish authorities should immediately release the 15 journalists and one media worker still being held after last week's mass detention of 19 journalists, two media workers, and one source for allegedly being members of a terrorist organization.”
Gulnoza Said, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York also said that Turkish authorities should immediately release the journalists who were arrested in Diyarbakır for no apparent reason.
Arresting journalists under a cloud of secrecy and keeping them in detention for an undetermined period until a trial is an unacceptable attack on the freedom of the press.
Turkey must end jailing journalists with little evidence or justification and using pre-trial detention as punishment.[1]