In Turkey, words are under surveillance, headlines are in custody
While columnists, executives, and staff members of Turkey’s opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet remain in detention, its chief web editor Oğuz Güven was also taken into custody in early hours of Friday (May 12) morning. Taken to police department from his house, Güven announced it from his personal twitter account, saying: ‘I am getting detained.’
It was reported by state-run AA later during the day that the reason for his detention was a headline used to report the recent traffic accident which caused chief prosecutor of Denizli, Mustafa Alper, and his security guard to die on Wednesday (May 10). İstanbul’s chief prosecutor, who is handling the case, extended the detention time for Güven to 7 days, reports said.
It’s also been reported that some readers who wrote comments under the report about the accident will also face detention with the same reason.
A number of civil society groups in Turkey, including Journalists’ Association of Turkey, Basın-İş, Union of Journalists of Turkey, Press Council, reacted against the detentions and demanded justice, emphasizing the ‘severity of unlawful and undemocratic practices’ and how the country has 'turned into an open prison'.
‘Now, words are under surveillance and the headlines are in custody’, the statement of the Press Council said.
Deputy chair of main opposition party, Yasemin Öney Cankurtaran, and CHP MP Barış Yarkadaş also reacted and expressed concern.
Front-page article of BirGün on 13 May 2017, Saturday with the headline of 'A dawn raid over a headline'