At least 20 journalists are currently in police custody in Turkey as part of the ongoing investigation into the failed coup of July 15, according to information from various media reports, although a complete list of the detained has not been provided by the authorities.

According to the state-run Anatolia News Agency, five owners of local newspapers were detained in an operation on July 23. Those detained were Aytekin Gezici, Yüksel Evsen, Taner Talaş, Hakan Bülent Yardımcı and Rıfat Söylemez.

On July 22, Haberdar Editor İsa Siyi was detained in an operation targeting the online Haberdar newspaper, according to a tweet by Haberdar Editor-in-Chief Said Sefa. The Evrensel daily reported that on July 24, three other Haberdar journalists, Ahmet Memiş, Erkan Büyük and Emra Koçali were detained. Other news reports said a detention warrant had been issued for Haberdar’s Ankara Bureau Chief Arzu Yıldız.

Anatolia reported that 14 journalists were taken into custody on July 25 in an operation in Antalya province. The agency didn’t list the names of the detained, but reported that former Zaman Antalya Regional Bureau Chief Tuncer Çetinkaya and Olgun Matur, the owner of a local news site, were among the detained. The report also named Sıtkı Soydan, a municipal council member, among the detained, despite stating that those detained were all journalists. If all of the other 11 individuals detained in the same operation are indeed journalists, this would bring the number of journalists in custody to 31.

On July 26, Anatolia reported that detention warrants had been issued for 42 journalists. The report said five of them -- Zaman’s former finance editor İbrahim Balta, former Bugün Daily journalist Cihan Acar, Yeni Hayat reporter Bayram Kaya and Samanyolu Haber reporter Yakup Sağlam – had been detained. Two others on the list, Yarına Bakış columnist Nazlı Ilıcak and Zaman’s former court reporter and columnist Büşra Erdal, were detained on Tuesday. According to this, seven of the 42 journalists for whom detention warrants had been issued are currently in custody.

Authorities have said the journalists were arrested as part of an operation into the media arm of the FETÖ/PDY organization. İstanbul Deputy Prosecutor İsmail Uçar is in charge of the investigation.

Several other journalists, including Sibel Hürtaş, Orhan Kemal Cengiz and Volkan Koç, were detained and later released after the July 15 coup attempt.

Journalists currently detained

İbrahim Balta – Zaman’s former business editor

Seyit Kılıç – Former TRT reporter

Cihan Acar – Bugün reporter

Bayram Kaya – Yeni Hayat, Zaman

Yakup Sağlam – Samanyolu Haber, Zaman

Hanım Büşra Erdal – Zaman

Nazlı Ilıcak – Yarına Bakış

Tuncer Çetinkaya  – Zaman Antalya

Olgun Matur – Antalya journalist

Ahmet Memiş – Haberdar

Erkan Büyük – Haberdar

Emre Koçali – Haberdar

İsa Siyi, Haberdar

Eleven local journalists whose names haven’t been released by authorities (Antalya)

Sıtkı Soydan, City Council Member, who was arrested along with 13 others who are said to be journalists.

Aytekin Gezici – Adana journalist

Yüksel Evsen – Adana journalist

Taner Talaş – Adana journalist

Hakan Bülent Yardımcı – Adana journalist, owns the rights to the Adana Express newspaper

Rıfat Söylemez – Adana journalist with the local Günaydın

Journalists released after being taken into custody

Orhan Kemal Cengiz – Özgür Düşünce. Released on probation.

Sibel Hürtaş

Volkan Koç – Haberdar

Levent Kenez – Editor-in-Chief of Meydan. (New detention warrant issued after his release)

Gülizar Baki – News editor of Meydan

42 journalists for whom detention warrants were issued on July 25

Abdullah Abdulkadiroğlu, Samanyolu TV anchor

Abdullah Kılıç, Meydan columnist

Ahmet Dönmez, Former Zaman reporter

Ali Akkuş, Former senior editor at Zaman

Arda Akın, Hürriyet reporter

Ayşe Nazlı Ilıcak, In custody

Bayram Kaya, In custody

Bilal Şahin, Özgür Düşünce

Bülent Ceyhan, Özgür Düşünce reporter

Bülent Mumay, formerly in charge of Hürriyet online news

Bünyamin Köseli, former Aksiyon newsweekly reporter

Cemal Azmi Kalyoncu,

Cevheri Güven, Nokta Magazine Editor-in-Chief

Cihan Acar, In custody

Cuma Ulus, Former coordinator for Millet daily publications

Emre Soncan, Former Zaman defense reporter

Ercan Gün, Fox TV News Editor

Erkan Akkuş, Former Bugün TV anchor

Ertuğrul Erbaş, Nokta editor

Fatih Akalan, Samanyolu anchor

Fatih Yağmur, former Radikal reporter

Habip Güler, former Zaman reporter

Hanım Büşra Erdal, In custody

Haşim Söylemez, former Aksiyon writer

Hüseyin Aydın, Cihan News Agency reporter

İbrahim Balta, In custody

Kamil Maman, former Bugün reporter

Kerim Gün, former Zaman editor

Levent Kenez, Editor-in-Chief of Meydan

Mahmut Hazar, Cihan News Agency

Mehmet Gündem, former Milliyet columnist

Metin Yıkar, Samanyolu Haber

Muhammed Fatih Uğur, former news editor at Zaman

Mustafa Erkan Acar, Cihan News Agency

Mürsel Genç, former Cihan reporter

Selahattin Sevi, Former photography-visuals editor at Zaman

Seyid Kılıç, In custody

Turan Görüryılmaz, Can Erzincan TV anchor

Ufuk Şanlı, former Vatan columnist

Ufuk Emin Köroğlu, former Karşı reporter

Yakup Sağlam, In custody

Yakup Çetin, former Zaman reporter

Other journalists for whom detention warrants have been issued

Said Sefa – Haberdar Editor-in Chief

Arzu Yıldız – Haberdar Ankara Bureau Chief

Detentions and arrests outside the coup probe

A number of Kurdish journalists have been detained since the declaration of state of emergency in Turkey, on charges that fall outside the scope of the coup investigation.

On July 23, Jin News Agency (JİNHA) editor Zehra Doğan was arrested by a Nusaybin Court. JİNHA, which is an all-female media outlet, reported that Doğan had been taken into custody while sitting at a local café, along with Mazlum Kavak, an advisor to Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) deputy Ali Atalan. Doğan was arrested and sent to prison on charges of “spreading propaganda on behalf of a terrorist organization.” Kavak, who was detained over his social media posts under suspicion of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “spreading propaganda on behalf of a terrorist” was released.

Zeynel Abidin Bulut, an editor of the Kurdish-language Azadiya Welat Newspaper, was detained at a police roadblock on July 23 in Diyarbakır’s Dağkapı district. Bulut, who was referred to a prosecutor, was arrested and sent to Diyarbakır Prison, on the grounds that a prison sentence given to him by a court had been upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals, İMÇ reported.

On July 26, Dicle News Agency (DİHA) reporters Selami Aslan and Mehmet Sıddık Damar, and JINHA reporters Esra Aydın and Ceylan Eraslan were detained while covering a story in Mardin’s Nusaybin district. All four reporters were released after a police interrogation.

This list has been compiled by P24 editors from open news sources and will be updated regularly. Journalists who want to report developments about themselves or their colleagues can contact us at punto24info@gmail.com