Message to Turkey’s government officials: ‘Leave journalists alone; go after murderers’

Team member at BirGün newspaper, Mahir Kanaat, has been kept in custody since yesterday when his house in İstanbul’s Maltepe district was raided at very early morning hours; and, he has not been allowed to speak to anyone.

While neither the police department nor the prosecutors have given a notice or an explanation about why Kanaat is in custody, pro-government newspaper Sabah announced that journalists and media professionals who were taken into custody yesterday were to ‘being accused of making propaganda for RedHack group on social media.’ In the same report of Sabah, sharing of e-mails of Turkey’s energy minister Berat Albayrak, which had been released by WikiLeaks, was also noted as one of the accusations against the journalists.

BirGün’s member of editorial board Barış İnce: ‘Leave journalists alone; go after murderers (ISIL)’

Giving a statement about the latest operation against professionals and journalists of Turkey’s new sources DİHA, Diken, and BirGün, editorial board member of BirGün Barış İnce said: “Everyday, information and documents are sent to journalists from a range of social media sources. And, our friends are added to various social media groups by other people. Groups such as Wikileaks and RedHack forward to journalists certain correspondences signaling corruption or bribery. Since we cannot confirm the authenticity of such documents, we do not use them; and, if it is highly debated among the public, we share them only as ‘claims.’ It is unacceptable for journalists to be taken into custody from their houses in rear-hancuffing just because they tweeted about widely commented on messages of Mr. son-in-law (Berat Albayrak). If the government officials were to try getting murderers – the ISIL members – rather than bothering journalists, they could have prevented so many lives from having been lost. We demand Mahir and all other journalists and media professionals to be released.”

Lawyer Tolgay Güvercin: ‘We weren’t given information for hours’

Stating that they were not given any information after Kanaat was taken into custody, lawyer Tolgay Güvercin said there is now a 5 days long restriction against him and he will not be allowed to see his lawyers within these next 5 days.

Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/gazetecileri-birakin-isid-katilleri-ile-ugrasin-140767.html

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