Turkey puts on trial 17 reporters from anti-Erdogan daily
24 July 2017 5:09 PM GMT
Seventeen directors and journalists from one of Turkey's most respected opposition newspapers go on trial today after spending over eight months behind bars in a case which has raised new alarm over press freedoms under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.The suspects were detained from October last year under the state of emergency implemented after the July 15, 2016 failed coup blamed on the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.
The opposition fears the emergency has been used to go after anyone who dares defy Erdogan and if convicted, the defendants face varying terms of up to 43 years in jail.The trial is seen as a test for press freedoms under Erdogan in Turkey, which ranks 155th on the latest Reporters Without Borders (RSF) world press freedom index, below Belarus and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to the P24 press freedom group, there are 166 journalists behind bars in Turkey, most of whom were arrested under the state of emergency. Erdogan, however, insisted in an interview earlier this month there were just "two real journalists" behind bars in Turkey.
Cumhuriyet (Republic), which was set up in 1924 and is Turkey's oldest mainstream national title, has been a thorn in the side of Erdogan in recent years.
It is one of the few genuine opposition voices in the press, which is dominated by strongly pro-government media and bigger mainstream dailies that are increasingly wary of challenging the authorities.A total of 17 staff of the newspaper - including writers, cartoonists and executives - will go on trial at the imposing palace of justice in Istanbul.Those appearing in court include some of the best known names in Turkish journalism including the columnist Kadri Gursel, the paper's editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu and the respected cartoonist Musa Kart.
Also being tried in the case is the investigative journalist Ahmet Sik who in 2011 wrote an explosive book "The Imam's Army" exposing the Gulen's movement.
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