Five more journalists in Turkey taken into custody in early morning raids

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Five more journalists in Turkey taken into custody in early morning raids

October 20th, 2017

Awake Goy

nsnbc : Five more journalists were taken into custody in raids carried out in the morning hours of October 20, 2017 in Turkey’s capital Ankara.

Police took Jin News Editor Sibel Yükler, Jin News reporters Duygu Erol and Habibe Eren as well as Mezopotamya Agency reporters Diren Yurtsever and Selman Güzelyüz into custody Friday morning. The journalists said police told the raids were carried out because someone reported them. Police also searched the houses of the five journalists who reportedly will betaken to the Ankara Anti-Terror Department after they have gone through health examinations.

JinNews started broadcasting in Turkish, Kurdish and English on jinnews.com.tr at the end of September 2017 like the Mezopotamya Agency. Working with woman editors and correspondents, JinNews is practicing women-oriented journalism. 15 media outlets including Turkey’s first news agency JINHA, founded 2012 in Diyarbakır, a predominantly Kurdish province in south-eastern Turkey, were closed through a statutory decree issued on October 29, 2016. Following the closure, Gazete Sûjin started its publication life in December 2016. Gazete Sûjin was also closed through a statutory decree on August 25.

Jinnews is regularly publishing and broadcasting on issues such as the Syrian Kurdish PYD and its military wings the YPG and YPJ, the YPG-led (U.S.-backed) Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), news about the Kurdistan Worker’s party (PKK), Kurdish Peshmerga in Syria, oppression of women by Iraqi, Iranian-backed, Shiite Hash al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) and other issues.

Turkey considers the PKK as a terrorist organization – a status that is increasingly being challenged by EU member states. Turkey also designates the Syrian PYD and its military wings YPG/YPJ as terrorist organizations allied and on par with the PKK. The five journalists are likely to be facing charges of supporting a terrorist organization without being a member, charges for terrorist propaganda, and possibly – although unlikely – charges for membership in a terrorist organization.

The arrest of the five journalists brings the number of journalists, currently detained in Turkey up to about 57. The actual number could be higher as arrests of journalists from smaller media or independent bloggers may not have been reported.

CH/L – nsnbc 20.10.2017

Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/10/20/five-more-journalists-in-turkey-taken-into-custody-in-early-morning-raids/