Expression Interrupted

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.

One more Mezopotamya news agency reporter jailed, another arrested

One more Mezopotamya news agency reporter jailed, another arrested

Mezopotamya news agency Ankara reporter Hakan Yalçın taken into custody one day after reporter Dindar Karataş’s imprisonment on terror charges

 

CANSU PİŞKİN, ISTANBUL 

 

Hakan Yalçın, an Ankara-based reporter for the Mezopotamya news agency (MA), was arrested on 27 November 2020 in a police raid on his home. Police confiscated Yalçın’s computer during the search and the journalist was taken to the Ankara Police Department. Yalçın was reportedly arrested on the allegation of “membership of a terrorist organization” in connection with an investigation conducted by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against the PKK/KCK/PYD.

 

Yalçın’s arrest followed immediately on the heels of another MA reporter’s arrest and imprisonment this week. Dindar Karataş, a Van-based reporter for MA, was arrested on 24 November in Van as part of an investigation conducted by the Erzurum Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. During his interrogation by the prosecution, Karataş was asked about his phone conversations with his sources and several news reports he penned. Karataş was then referred to the Erzurum 1st Criminal Judgeship of Peace, which jailed him pending trial on the charge of “membership of a terrorist organization.” Karataş was sent to the Erzurum H Type Prison.

 

Shortly after Karataş’s arrest, the news agency’s offices in Van were also raided and searched by anti-terror police based on a warrant issued by the Erzurum Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. Police confiscated the agency’s laptops and computer hard disks during the 24 November raid.

 

Three MA journalists jailed in two months

 

The pro-Kurdish news agency and its reporters are frequently targeted in criminal investigations. Last month, Van-based MA reporters Adnan Bilen and Cemil Uğur were jailed pending trial following their coverage of the alleged torture of villagers Osman Şiban and Servet Turgut in the Çatak district after being arrested by troops. The agency’s offices were also raided and searched by police as part of the investigation against Bilen and Uğur. The two MA reporters were arrested on 6 October alongside JinNews reporter Şehriban Abi and journalist Nazan Sala. All four were jailed pending trial on 9 October by a criminal judgeship of peace on the charge of “membership of a terrorist organization” for “reporting on social events against the state.”

 

"An attempt at silencing dissent"

 

Sedat Yılmaz, an editor with MA, told Expression Interrupted that the increasing repression of the news agency had to do with the overall situation in Turkey: “The political authority, which has lost its conscience and morals along with its ability to run the country, is attempting to silence anyone who speaks up by arresting them and putting them in prison. The pressure on the Mezopotamya news agency is part of this situation -- which proves that what we are doing is of significance and that we are annoying [the political authority]. The increasing repression of the Mezopotamya agency must be rooted in the fact that we report on matters authorities want to keep from sight and that we give voice to dissidence.”

 

Yılmaz said MA reporters were imprisoned over their reporting: “Indictments prove this fact. We are being imprisoned because we are journalists. But we will continue doing journalism under all kinds of repressive government.”

 

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