Zekeriya Güzüpek, the chairman of the now-closed Dicle news agency (DİHA), a pro-Kurdish news agency and journalist Mehmet Ali Ertaş, an editor for DİHA’s Kurdish service were detained in Diyarbakır during a police raid to the houses in early morning on Wednesday.
It was reported that the houses of the chairman and the editor of DİHA, which was shut down by a Turkish government decree under the rule of emergency that was declared following the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, were raided by police teams in Diyarbakır’s central Bağlar district at 04:00 Wednesday morning. Following the police search in the houses, both journalists were taken into custody.
Turkey is the leading jailer of journalists in the world. The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) has documented that 264 journalists are now in jails as of May 27, most in pre-trial detention languishing in notorious Turkish prisons without even a conviction. Of those in Turkish prisons, 241 are arrested pending trial, only 23 journalists remain convicted and serving time in Turkish prisons. An outstanding detention warrants remain for 105 journalists who live in exile or remain at large in Turkey.
Detaining tens of thousands of people over alleged links to the movement, the government also closed down more than 180 media outlets after the coup attempt.
June 1, 2017
