 reported on Friday.){kind=link}
A Turkish court has ordered the release of seven journalists who were arrested while protesting the death of two Kurdish journalists killed in a reported Turkish drone strike in northern Syria, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) reported on Friday.
7 tutuklu gazeteciye tahliye kararı
Suriye’de SİHA saldırısında öldürülen gazeteciler Nazım Daştan ve Cihan Bilgin için basın açıklaması yapmak isterken gözaltına alınıp tutuklanan gazeteciler Gülistan Dursun, Can Papila, Pınar Gayıp, Serpil Ünal, Hayri Tunç, Muhammed Enes… pic.twitter.com/hkqgqyGgVT
— MLSA (@mlsaturkey) January 31, 2025
The journalists — Gülistan Dursun, Can Papila, Pınar Gayıp, Serpil Ünal, Hayri Tunç, Muhammed Enes Sezgin and Osman Akın — were detained in December after police intervened in a demonstration in İstanbul’s Şişhane Square. The protest, organized by the Dicle Fırat Journalists Association, the Mezopotamya Women Journalists Association and the Press Workers Union (DİSK Basın-İş), aimed to condemn the deaths of journalists Nazım Daştan, 32, and Cihan Bilgin, 29, who were killed near Tishrin Dam, east of Aleppo, while covering clashes between Ankara-backed forces and US-supported Kurdish fighters.
The journalists were initially accused of “violating the law on meetings and demonstrations” and “disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organization.” Their arrests drew widespread condemnation from journalist unions and bar associations, which denounced the crackdown on press freedom and the right to peaceful assembly.
The İstanbul Bar Association criticized an ongoing investigation into its president and board members for issuing a statement following the death of Daştan and Bilgin, calling the probe “unlawful.” The Ankara and İzmir bar associations also expressed solidarity, demanding the investigation be dropped.
Rights groups have long accused the Turkish government of targeting journalists, particularly since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan survived a failed coup in 2016. Turkey ranks 158th out of 180 countries in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, making it one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists.