Vienna, 25/07/2016
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) was appalled by arrest warrants issued by the Turkish Prosecutor for anti-terrorism against 42 journalists on July 25.
In the aftermath of the coup attempt which occurred on 15 July, media workers are being detained as part of an inquiry in the failed overthrow of the government. Several editor-in-chiefs and journalists have been accused of being involved in the overthrow, as well as for divulging terrorist propaganda.
The targeted journalists are:
Abdullah Abdulkadiroğlu
Abdullah Kılıç
Ahmet Dönmez
Ali Akkuş
Arda Akın
Nazlı Ilıcak
Bayram Kaya
Bilal Şahin
Bülent Ceyhan
Bülent Mumay
Bünyamin Köseli
Cemal Azmi Kalyoncu
Cevheri Güven
Cihan Acar
Cuma Ulus
Emre Soncan
Ercan Gün
Erkan Akkuş
Ertuğrul Erbaş
Fatih Akalan
Fatih Yağmur
Habip Güler
Hanım Büşra Erdal
Haşim Söylemez
Hüseyin Aydın
İbrahim Balta
Kamil Maman
Kerim Gün
Levent Kenez
Mahmut Hazar
Mehmet Gündem
Metin Yıkar
Muhammed Fatih Uğur
Mustafa Erkan Acar
Mürsel Genç
Selahattin Sevi
Seyid Kılıç
Turan Görüryılmaz
Ufuk Şanlı
Ufuk Emin Köroğlu
Yakup Sağlam
Yakup Çetin.
‘We were deeply distressed to hear the news of arrest warrants being issued against so many of our colleagues in Turkey. These senseless attempts of censorship and oppression against media workers must end immediately’, said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic. ‘We call on authorities to end attempts to pressure and detain journalists’.
SEEMO is a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South, East and Central Europe and its press freedom work is supported by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) project, as part of a grant by the European Commission.