Two Turkish journalists were briefly detained on Thursday as part of an investigation into the sale of a television station, the İstanbul prosecutor’s office said, prompting condemnation from their employers and press organizations.
Timur Soykan and Murat Ağırel had their homes searched and were taken into custody for “threats” and “blackmail” as part of the probe into the acquisition of the Flash Haber TV channel.
“An investigation is under way with detention, search and seizure procedures against the suspects,” the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
The two journalists work for opposition dailies Birgün and Cumhuriyet, who condemned their detention and said they were held because of their investigation into the arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.
İmamoğlu is seen as the main rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The chairman of the board of Birgün, İbrahim Aydın, said the government authorities were attempting to gag the press.
“The government’s target is not crime and criminals but real journalists who fight to convey the truth,” he wrote on X.
Soykan and Ağırel are among the well-known journalists in Turkey. They were released from detention later on Thursday under a travel ban.
According to media rights group Reporters Without Borders, they recently claimed in a YouTube video that there were irregularities in the probe into İmamoğlu and several other district mayors from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
İmamoğlu’s detention on March 19 and subsequent arrest triggered the largest wave of protests in Turkey in more than a decade.
In all, at least 13 Turkish journalists have been arrested since the start of the protests. Several of them, including an AFP photographer who was held for several days in late March, are due in court on April 18.
They are accused of participating in illegal gatherings that they claim they were covering as part of their job as journalists.
A Swedish journalist was also arrested and detained in late March in İstanbul and accused of “terrorism” and “insulting” Erdoğan.
© Agence France-Presse