Vienna, 17/11/2016
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemned the slew of recent court orders in Turkey which caused several media websites and Twitter accounts to be shut down.
On 16 November, the house of Saban Iba, a columnist for Ozgur Gundem, and artist Nihat Sonmez in Balikesir’s Edremit district was raided by officers. Iba was accused of allegedly “having membership in a terrorist organization”, detained and taken to the District Gendarme Command.
On 17 November, Ismail Coban the managing editor of Kurdish daily Azadiya Welat was sentenced to two years and four months in prison for “disseminating propaganda on behalf of a terrorist organization”.
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.