Journalists and academics bear the brunt of the massive crackdown on freedom of expression in Turkey. Scores of them are currently subject to criminal investigations or behind bars. This website is dedicated to tracking the legal process against them.
Journalist Candemir, who has faced several investigations, detentions and trials due to his professional activities says, “There are dozens of journalists in prison. The underlying reason is the policies of the state and the government, because the government is not governing normally”
NİMET ÖLMEZ, VAN
Oktay Candemir, who has been a journalist for 20 years, has faced dozens of investigations and is currently the defendant in six cases. Candemir, who has faced more than 50 investigations since 2016, said “I cannot say a word without being called to the police station” about what he has had to face. Candemir’s home, where he lives with his 74-year-old mother, has been raided many times by the police. When we met for the interview at his home, Candemir showed me the piles of statements, reports and indictments. Saying that maintaining a critical approach and practicing independent journalism comes at a cost, Candemir answered Expression Interrupted’s questions.
A new investigation against Candemir
The most recent investigation against Candemir was launched on 7 May 2024. Candemir provided a statement at the İki Nisan Police Station, upon a complaint by Murat Zorluoğlu, who was elected Mayor of Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality in the 2019 local elections after having served as the Governor of Van and the public administrator for Van Metropolitan Municipality during the previous term. Candemir went to the police station with his lawyer Kadir Kutevi to provide a statement under the investigation of suspicion of “insulting a public official.” Access to Oktay Candemir’s article titled “Vali-z” (“Governor-z” - a play on the word valiz, meaning suitcase), published on the news site Serhat News had previously been denied by court order. Candemir said the following:
“I started as a journalist in 2003. I faced my first investigation in 2007. As you know, during that period the Justice and Development Party (AKP) acted in keeping with the European Union, had something of a democratization claim and expanded human rights in the framework of European Union criteria. But even then, I faced court cases. A case was filed against me and my fellow journalist Ercan Öksüz for interviewing a witness of the Zilan Massacre. We were sentenced at the end, which was deferred. In 2011, while I was still working as a journalist and the AKP government was going through the Oslo and Habur processes, I was arrested under the KCK case and stayed in prison for a year. There was an increase in the number of cases filed against me from 2015 onwards. They started calling me into the police station for almost every piece I wrote and every social media post I shared. I have faced perhaps 50 investigations since 2016.”
“Nothing has changed for journalism for 10 years”
Candemir said that most of the investigations he faced had not led to court cases, but 20 of the investigations had. He added: “I mostly face penal cases. For example, I am a defendant in three ‘insulting the president’ cases and a case for ‘insulting’ Süleyman Soylu. I am facing ongoing cases for ‘terrorism propaganda.’ I have been a journalist in this town for many years now. Say that I wrote something about the governor, who is the most important civil servant in town; the governor immediately files a complaint. I can see that they certainly do not want to be criticized or for us to say ‘You have done something wrong’ when someone makes a mistake. I can say that nothing has changed for journalism in the last 10 years of AKP government.”
“We have inevitably developed self-censorship”
Candemir said that there was a constant policy of “appointing a public administrator through unlawful means” in Van and stated the following about journalists reporting on corruption at municipalities managed by public administrators: “As a person who runs the town, they are naturally the subject of reporting. All institutions receive their orders from the governor, so they are not going to tell him ‘no’ when he calls the security directorate. This is why most complaints by public administrators lead to court cases. They have this idea that journalists should not report on anything they do. They use the judiciary as a stick to this end. There is also the policy of having journalists waste all their time at police stations and court houses. There is no crime, they too know that there will be no sentencing at the end of these trials. In such an environment of pressure, we inevitable develop self-censorship. Although this does not stop me from writing a news item, I choose my words carefully for many subjects. I do not say what I have in mind directly and I am circumspect. I sometimes consult with my lawyer about which words might be considered a crime, and then I write the piece.”
“My news sources were threatened”
Candemir said that his news sources had also been affected by the pressure he faced in Van: “I was an independent journalist in 2019. For example, I wrote a piece about petition-writers, something along the lines of ‘a dying profession.’ I prepared the piece after interviewing a petition-writer and it was published. Two days later he called me up and asked me to take the piece down. When I asked him why, he told me that the police had walked up to him and said ‘Do you know who Oktay Candemir is? You should not have allowed that terrorist to interview you.’ They even reach out to my sources, who are the subject of the news item, to tell them ‘Do not work with Oktay Candemir.’ We are constantly obstructed in the street, either they assault us or try to prevent and suppress us psychologically. In 2019, when I was covering a press statement, I was assaulted by nearly 20 police officers in the town square. Then they filed a criminal complaint against me. I was tried and acquitted. We try to continue practicing journalism by pushing our limits.”
Candemir investigated during local election protests
Journalists Necdet Tam, Adnan Bilen and Oktay Candemir faced an investigation upon a criminal complaint filed by AKP candidate Abdulhat Arvas, following the protests which had begun in Van after DEM Party Van Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor was not given a certificate of election following the local elections on 31 March 2024. Emphasizing the role of journalists in such demonstrations, Candemir said that he had continued to follow the news as a moral and ethical obligation.
At the end of our interview, Candemir said, “In the 90s Kurdish journalists were being murdered by unknown perpetrators. They thought they could destroy the Kurdish press this way, but it did not happen. So, there has been an intense wave of arrests over the last 10 years. Dozens of journalists are in prison and the underlying reason is state and government policy because the government is not governing normally. This has been the state’s policy on Kurds for the last 30-40 years. They want to be able to bomb Cizre and Nusaybin with no journalist obtaining images, publishing or talking about it. There is the feeling that the state can always cover up what it wants. But the pressure on Kurdish journalists has now spread beyond them, even journalists in the mainstream media in Turkey can no longer just write about what they want.”