BirGün team member taken into custody
Team member at BirGün newspaper of Turkey Mahir Kanaat was taken into custody at very early morning hours of Sunday (December 25) by police officers who raided Kanaat’s house in Maltepe, İstanbul.
While Tunca Öğreten, editor of online news portal Diken and journalist Metin Yoksu were also taken into custody on the same day in İstanbul, editor of DIHA Ömer Çelik was taken into custody in Diyarbakır around the same hours.
As no clear explanation or reason was provided about neither of them initially, it was only explained that they would not be allowed to see or speak with anyone for the first five days of custody.
Before any official explanation was provided, pro-government newspaper Sabah announced that Kanaat was taken into custody based on accusations of 'making propaganda for RedHack group on social media.'
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Turkey’s Union of Journalist (TGS) released a statement in reaction latest operations against journalists and media professionals, demanding their, along with all other detained journalists’, release.
Statement of TGS: “While bombs explode at all corners of Turkey and while ISIL kills Turkey’s soldiers in Syria, journalists are targetted in order for truth to be kept as a secrect: we do not accept this! What journalists do is reporting the truth to the public. So, once again, we say ‘journalism is not a crime’; and, we demand for all journalist under custody and detention to be released."