Turkish prosecutors have indicted seven journalists who were held in pretrial detention for several days last month for covering mass protests following the arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the most powerful political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The journalists face charges of violating Turkey’s Law on Meetings and Demonstrations, with prosecutors seeking prison sentences ranging from six months to three years, according to the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA).
They were among 11 journalists detained at their homes early on March 24 for covering demonstrations in front of İstanbul’s City Hall in Saraçhane and elsewhere. All were released from pretrial detention four days later amid criticism from opposition leaders and press freedom organizations.
Those indicted include Agence France-Presse photographer Yasin Akgül, Now Haber reporter Ali Onur Tosun, photojournalists Bülent Kılıç, Gökhan Kam and Kurtuluş Arı — the latter employed by the İstanbul Municipality — and journalists Zeynep Kuray and Hayri Tunç.
According to MLSA, the indictment claims that although the journalists said they were on the scene in a professional capacity, “no determination was made by law enforcement confirming their journalistic activities at the location.”
AFP’s Akgül told his agency following his release that he and his colleagues and have often covered journalists’ arrests in Turkey and that it had mainly been reporters and opinion writers who were targeted.
“A photojournalist had never been jailed for doing his job,” he said.
According to Akgül, “a desire to make it impossible to cover current events in images” was behind his and his colleagues’ arrest.
Twenty-five people are named as suspects in the indictment, including the seven journalists.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Turkey representative Erol Önderoğlu described the indictment as “tragicomic.”
“As we say let’s trust in justice, journalistic rights are being trampled underfoot with such unlawful moves,” the Bianet news website reported him as saying.
Demonstrators defied protest bans in Turkey’s three largest cities, staging nightly gatherings that often led to clashes with riot police.
İmamoğlu’s arrest on corruption charges has drawn international condemnation, with critics calling it politically motivated and part of a broader crackdown on dissent in Turkey. His detention has sparked Turkey’s largest street protests in over a decade.