Turkey’s crackdown on journalists is approaching a “crisis point,” the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) warned on Monday, urging the release of four journalists jailed or put under house arrest over coverage of an investment fund scandal.
“We are reaching a crisis point with at least 22 journalists arrested or detained under the disinformation law this year alone,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative.
“All of the journalists who were either imprisoned or placed under house arrest must be immediately freed, and Turkey’s disinformation law should be abolished without delay.”
An İstanbul court jailed Mustafa Balcı, an editor at the Sözcü newspaper, and Şaban Sevinç, editor-in-chief of the Bizim TV online news outlet, pending trial on October 9 on accusations of publicly disseminating misleading information.
İsmail Saymaz, a Sözcü columnist, and Murat Ağırel, a Cumhuriyet columnist who also appears on Sözcü TV, were initially released with overseas travel bans and requirements to report to the police. A court ordered house arrest for both on October 10 after prosecutors challenged their release.
The cases concern reporting and social media posts about alleged links between figures in President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the fund investigation.
Balcı had shared a photograph showing AKP spokesman Ömer Çelik sitting one row in front of Osman Arıkan Nacar, a suspect in the investigation, at a concert in the southwestern coastal town of Bodrum on August 22. Balcı denied spreading false information, explaining that the photograph had previously been published.
Saymaz and Ağırel were questioned about an October 7 Sözcü TV broadcast discussing allegations concerning Trade Minister Ömer Bolat, who denied wrongdoing and filed a criminal complaint against them. Both journalists denied spreading misleading information, defending their work as reporting on allegations requiring investigation.
According to CPJ, it could not establish which specific material produced by Balcı and Sevinç constituted the basis of their arrests.
The fund crisis erupted in mid-September when some funds could not meet investors’ withdrawal requests, prompting a stock market selloff and investigations into suspected market manipulation.
The Capital Markets Board (SPK), Turkey’s securities regulator, ordered the liquidation of 131 funds managed by seven companies, affecting 455,758 investors.
İstanbul prosecutors also launched an investigation on Monday into people who shared documents marked confidential from the fund inquiry, without identifying the people under investigation or specifying which documents had been shared.
Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code, which went into force in October 2022, provides prison terms of one to three years for publicly spreading false information concerning security, public order or public health with the sole intent of causing anxiety, fear or panic, in a manner capable of disturbing the public peace.
Repeated detentions and lengthy proceedings discourage journalism even when cases end without convictions, CPJ argued in an analysis published October 5.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment on the latest cases.
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