One of the most highly acclaimed journalists in Turkey, Kadri Gürsel, who is a board member of International Press Institute, was detained in İstanbul on Monday.
Gürsel is also a columnist for the Cumhuriyet daily, against which a police operation was launched on Monday, with detention warrants issued for some of the daily’s journalists.
“[I learned that] a detention warrant was issued for me and that a search of my house is being conducted. I am going home. I think it is part of the operation against Cumhuriyet,” wrote Gürsel in a message from his Twitter account on Monday morning. He was subsequently detained.
Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15 that claimed the lives of more than 240 people and injured a thousand others. Dozens of media outlets in the country have been closed down and scores of journalists have been jailed by the government since the putsch.
According to a recent report from the Contemporary Journalists Association (ÇGD), 118 media outlets in Turkey were closed down, 184 journalists were detained, 56 journalists arrested, 866 journalists fired from their jobs and 620 journalists had their press cards cancelled during the July-September period.