 reported, citing an official document.){kind=link}
Turkish police have blacklisted 20 journalists for writing for an online magazine called Journalist Post, a periodical put out by journalists living in exile, the Mezopotamya news agency (MA) reported, citing an official document.
Journalist Post is published by the International Journalists Association e.V., an organization founded in Germany by media professionals who were forced to flee Turkey due to government pressure and now live in exile.
During the trial of MA Editor-in-Chief Dicle Müftüoğlu on trumped-up terrorism charges, a document surfaced listing the names of people involved in running the magazine and contributing articles: Engin Sağ, Şemsi Açıkgöz, Mustafa Kılıç, Yüksek Durgut, Ramiz Kılıçarslan, Necdet Çelik, Hasan Cücük, İsmail Muhammet Sağıroğlu, Enes Cansever, Basri Doğan, Türkmen Terzi, Vedat Demir, Rabia Yavuz Türe, Yunus Erdoğdu, Naciye Nur Kılıç, Erkan Pehlivan, Dicle Müftüoğlu, Mustafa Kuleli, Ergkin Emet and Gökhan Durmuş, president of the Journalists’ Association of Turkey (TGS).
“I am blacklisted because I wrote an article for a magazine, that is, because I do my job. The article I wrote was to show the difficulties of Kurdish journalists. I am being put on trial for doing my duty,” Müftüoğlu was quoted as saying by MA.
Turkish police classify Journalist Post as being run by the Gülen movement, which is inspired by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen and is listed by Ankara as a terrorist organization and blamed for a 2016 coup attempt. The movement denies any involvement in the coup or terrorist activities.
Turkey, known as one of the top jailers of journalists in the world, was ranked 149th out of 180 countries in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Dozens of critical journalists were jailed in Turkey, while many media outlets were shut down in the aftermath of the coup attempt.