Two employees of Turkey’s Express periodical have been convicted of “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation”. Journalist Irfan Aktan was sentenced to 15 months in prison while editorial manager Merve Erol was fined TL 16,000 (€ 8,000). The charges stem from an article published last September entitled “Weather conditions in the Qandil region/No solution without fighting”. The Qandil mountains are home to camps run by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and several high-ranking members of the militant organisation. The journalists’ defence argued the article was written at a time when the discussions about the Kurdish initiative had just started and when PKK members had started to surrender.
NEWS
Turkey: Journalists sentenced and fined for ‘propaganda’
Two employees of Turkey’s Express periodical have been convicted of “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation”. Journalist Irfan Aktan was sentenced to 15 months in prison while editorial manager Merve Erol was fined TL 16,000 (€ 8,000). The charges stem from an article published last September entitled “Weather conditions in the Qandil region/No solution without fighting”. […]
By Intern
08 Jun 10
READ MORE
-
Jimmy Lai, the troublemaker
A new biography details the life of Hong Kong’s most outspoken political prisoner – the book's author Mark Clifford talks to Index about Lai’s reso...
-
Australia is turning up the heat on environmental activists
Climate protesters in Australia face a higher risk of arrest than those in any other country, and direct action is becoming harder
-
Why can’t we just ban politicians from lying?
An outright ban on intentional deception would be unenforceable, lead to self-censorship and do nothing to tackle the disinformation plaguing socia...
-
Index pays tribute to Israeli journalist and human rights activist Oded Lifshitz
Lifshitz, who was killed after he was taken hostage during the 7 October massacre, was an ardent campaigner for Palestinian rights