The detention of Turkish journalist Pınar Gayıp is part of a broader pattern of legal harassment aimed at silencing the press, the Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) said in a statement on Monday.
Gayıp, an editor for the pro-Kurdish Etkin News Agency (ETHA), was briefly detained in İstanbul on Monday following a complaint filed by lawyer Sezgin Keleş.
Keleş filed complaints against Gayıp after she published several articles about sexual assault allegations against him. He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2022 for sexually assaulting an intern. In his complaints Keleş accused Gayıp of defamation, child abuse and membership in a terrorist organization. Some of these accusations have resulted in legal cases, and Keleş has also filed complaints against ETHA with the financial authorities.
In March Gayıp received a six-month suspended sentence for her coverage of Keleş’s conviction.
The CFWIJ statement said legal harassment has become a common tactic under the administration of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The group reported that 29 percent of all violations against women journalists in Turkey since 2019 have involved legal harassment.
“We stand firmly with Pınar and demand the dropping of all absurd charges against her and an immediate end to this legal persecution,” the CFWIJ statement said.
While it was unclear which terrorist organization Gayıp is allegedly linked to, journalists covering Kurdish issues or working for pro-Kurdish outlets are frequently accused of ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
