Police raided the Istanbul offices of LeMan Monday evening and detained the staff members after the publication of what officials claimed was a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, a depiction that is forbidden in the Muslim world. At the same time, a mob laid siege to the building and the surrounding area in Beyoğlu District, chanting pro-shariah law slogans. 

Istanbul prosecutors are investigating six people from the LeMan staff for “publicly demeaning religious values.” Four of the staffers are in custody and two others are wanted but are reportedly not in the country. 

The cartoon, published in the latest edition of the weekly, depicts two men with wings on their backs meeting over the skies of a city being bombed. They greet each other by saying “Assalamu alaikum, I’m Muhammad,” and “Aleichem shalom, I’m Moses,” as they shake hands. LeMan said on X that the man in the cartoon is not the prophet but instead a Muslim man named Muhammad. 

“Turkish authorities shouldn’t fan the flames of religious backlash over a cartoon that LeMan magazine said was not portraying the Islamic prophet,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “The authorities should release the four LeMan staff in custody, cancel the warrants for those abroad, and focus on ensuring their safety.”

Prior depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in cartoons have led to lethal violence and death threats against journalists.

The detained include Doğan Pehlivan, the cartoonist; Cebrail Okçu, graphic designer; Zafer Aknar, news editor; and Ali Yavuz, institutional manager. Tuncay Akgün, the chief editor and publisher, and news editor Aslan Özdemir were also wanted by the authorities. 

Turkish authorities banned the distribution of the latest edition of LeMan and ordered copies to be pulled from newsstands. A court ordered that LeMan’s website and X account be blocked within Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey’s cabinet members welcomed the operation in public comments. Some opposition leaders also criticized the cartoon. 

CPJ’s emailed request for comment from the chief prosecutor’s office in Istanbul did not receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Turkish authorities once more raided the homes of multiple journalists in the middle of the night, in order to portray them as dangerous criminals, and detained them without offering any justification. CPJ has monitored similar secretive operations in the past decade, and not one journalist has been proven to be involved with actual terrorism,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “The authorities should immediately release the journalists in custody and stop this systematic harassment of the media.”

In a statement Tuesday, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said police had conducted simultaneous operations in 30 cities and detained a total of 261 people who suspected of having ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or alleged offshoot organizations. At least 12 journalists are reported to be held in custody:

• Erdoğan Alayumat, former reporter for the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency in Istanbul
• Suzan Demir, Istanbul-based freelance reporter
• Tuğçe Yılmaz, Istanbul-based reporter for the independent news website Bianet
• Emrah Kelekçier, Diyarbakır-based freelance photographer
• Ahmet Sümbül, Diyarbakır-based freelance reporter
• Roza Metina, chairperson of the Mesopotamia Women Journalists Association in Diyarbakır
• Bilal Seçkin, Istanbul-based freelance photographer
• Bilge Aksu, Istanbul-based freelance reporter
• Mehmet Uçar, Batman-based freelance reporter
• Doğan Güzel, Diyarbakır-based political cartoonist
• Abdurrahman Aydın, Antalya-based columnist for the independent news website Gazete Duvar
• Havin Derya, Antalya-based freelance reporter

The reasons for the detentions are unknown, as there is a court order of secrecy on the investigation, preventing the detainees and their lawyers from being informed of the investigation’s details and possible charges, a common practice in such crackdowns.

CPJ emailed Turkey’s Interior Ministry for comment but received no reply.

Separately, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), threatened the pro-opposition outlet Halk TV and its commentators for criticizing his party with a vow that the MHP will make them suffer.

“We are taking note, one by one, of the ignorant and arrogant commentators, especially Halk TV,” Bahçeli said Tuesday at a MHP meeting in Ankara. In October, he had told the outlet to “watch your step.”

Editor’s note: The alert was updated to correct the name of Ahmet Sümbül.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

On April 23, Turkish authorities took nine people, who local media reported were all Kurdish journalists and media workers, into police custody after conducting house raids in Turkey’s largest city Istanbul, the capital Ankara, and the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa, according to news reports. Police questioned the journalists about their reporting and their news sources, according to news reports.

The detainees were denied access to their lawyers until the following day, according to a report by the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), a local press freedom group. Their lawyers were also not informed of the accusations against their clients due to a court order of secrecy on the investigation, according to the report. 

Istanbul prosecutors transferred Dal and Aslan, who work for the Mezopotamya News Agency (MA), as well as Alayumat, a former MA report, to a court, asking for their arrests.

In the early hours of April 27, an Istanbul court arrested Dal, Aslan, and Alayumat, pending trial on suspicion of terrorist activity.

Dal was strip searched as she was processed at the Bakırköy Women’s Prison in Istanbul and will file a criminal complaint via her lawyers, reports said.

The other six detainees were released under judicial control, including Doğan Kaynak, another former reporter for MA, and Enes Sezgin Özgür and Şirin Ermiş, who are both media workers for the daily Yeni Yaşam newspaper in Istanbul.

CPJ could not confirm the identities of Saliha Aras, Yeşim Alıcı, and Beste Argat Balcı, who were mentioned only as “journalist,” “a worker of the Free Press,” and “media worker,” respectively, in the reports.

Judicial control involves the obligation to report regularly to a police station and a ban on foreign travel.

“Turkish authorities continue to harass members of the media with mass raids and consistently fail to provide credible evidence to back up their accusations of terrorism against them. The only secret that the courts are hiding with their orders of secrecy surrounding their investigations is their lack of proof of any wrongdoing. Once more, Kurdish journalists are being forced to spend days in jail being questioned about their professional activities,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should immediately release Esra Solin Dal, Mehmet Aslan, and Erdoğan Alayumat, overturn the judicial control measures issued against other journalists and media workers who were swept up in the raid, and stop this harassment, which only tarnishes Turkey’s global reputation in terms of press freedom.”

Turkish police raided the houses of at least eight journalists in Izmir and Van in February and took them into custody. The practice is common in Turkey, according to CPJ research.

Alayumat used to be a reporter for the shuttered pro-Kurdish outlet Dihaber and was imprisoned for his journalism in 2017, as CPJ documented.

CPJ emailed the chief prosecutor’s office in Istanbul for comment about the arrests of Dal, Aslan, and Alayumat but did not receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

On Monday, September 19, Şahin, a freelance journalist who was a former reporter for the pro-Kurdish privately owned daily newspaper Yeni Yaşam, was sentenced to six years and three months in prison for the charge of being a member of a terrorist organization by the Ninth Court of Serious Crimes in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır, according to reports and tweets of Platform for Independent Journalism, known as P24, which monitored the September 19 sentencing hearing. 

The court did not issue an arrest warrant for the journalist who was not present at the hearing but extended her standing foreign travel ban pending appeal of the charge, according to those sources. Şahin’s lawyer, Resul Tamur, told the court that the case against the journalist was based on secret witness testimonies that he called “lies,” and urged Şahin’s acquittal, the reports said.

“Turkish authorities should not fight the appeal of journalist Hatice Şahin,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s Program Director, in New York. “Turkey should stop charging journalists with terrorism when they are doing their jobs and start taking measures to improve the country’s press freedom record.”

According to CPJ’s review of the 78-page indictment against the journalist, the first 73 pages focus on the history and gatherings of the Democratic Society Congress, known as the DTK, a nongovernmental group that authorities allege is connected to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as PKK. The evidence against the journalist in the indictment relates to her reporting on the group’s meetings, such as taking flights from Istanbul to Diyarbakır on the dates the group had gatherings in 2017; personal notes and agenda; wiretapped phone records of short conversations with individuals on where to meet and when; and secret witness testimonies claiming that Şahin was involved with terrorism. Şahin has pleaded not guilty of the charge, according to the indictment.

Since 2018, several people have been arrested and put on trial for their alleged involvement with the group, according to reports. One of the journalists, Ayşegül Doğan, received the same sentence and charge as Şahin in 2020.

CPJ emailed the Diyarbakır chief prosecutor’s office for comment but did not immediately receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

A Turkish court in the southeastern Diyarbakır city ordered the arrests of the 16 on Wednesday, June 15, according to news reports. The specifics of the charges are unclear after another court issued a gag order on the investigation, but all 21 detained journalists and media workers were questioned about their journalistic activities, according to independent news website Bianet, which cited Resul Tamur, a lawyer representing the 16 arrested.

Tamur told Bianet that his clients were questioned about the angle they took on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group and political party that Turkey classifies as a terrorist group, and whether the content the journalists created for broadcast by European outlets was considered pro-PKK. Most of the journalists either work for pro-Kurdish media outlets or independent production companies that provide content for other outlets, according to those reports and CPJ’s messaging app interviews with local journalists.

“Turkish authorities should immediately release the journalists who were arrested in Diyarbakır for no apparent reason,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Arresting journalists under a cloud of secrecy and keeping them in detention for an undetermined period until a trial is an unacceptable attack on the freedom of the press. Turkey must end jailing journalists with little evidence or justification and using pre-trial detention as punishment.”

CPJ identified the following jailed journalists and media workers from news reports, social media, and phone and messaging app interviews:

• Lezgin Akdeniz, camera operator. CPJ was unable to confirm Akdeniz’s outlet.
• Safiye Alagaş, manager for pro-Kurdish, all-women news website JINNEWS
• Serdar Altan, freelance journalist, TV show host, and co-chair of local media advocacy group Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG)
• Zeynel Abidin Bulut, TV show host, editor for the Kurdish language weekly newspaper Xwebûn, and treasurer for DFG
• Ömer Çelik, TV show host and a former editor for the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency
• Suat Doğuhan, camera operator and owner of PEL production company
• Mehmet Ali Ertaş, TV show host and news editor for Xwebûn
• Ramazan Geciken, camera operator at PEL
• Mazlum Doğan Güler, camera operator for Pia production company
• İbrahim Koyuncu, camera operator. CPJ was unable to confirm Koyuncu’s outlet.
• Abdurrahman Öncü, camera operator for Pia
• Aziz Oruç, editor for Mezopotamya News Agency
• Mehmet Şahin, TV show host at Pia, and columnist for Xwebûn
• Remziye Temel, an accountant for Pia
• Neşe Toprak, a culture and art show TV host for PEL and artist
• Elif Anger, Pia host for a TV show on culture and ecology

The six other detainees were released with travel restrictions after eight days in detention, according to news reports. They are:

• Kadir Bayram, camera operator. CPJ was unable to confirm Bayram’s outlet.
• İhsan Ergülen, who was interviewed as a source by an unidentified detained journalist, according to a local journalist familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ by text message and requested anonymity for safety reasons. CPJ was unable to confirm this report.
• Gülşen Koçuk, editor for JINNEWS
• Feynaz Koçuk. CPJ was unable to confirm Koçuk’s role or outlet.
• Esmer Tunç, camera operator. CPJ was unable to confirm Tunç’s outlet.
• Mehmet Yalçın, camera operator. CPJ was unable to confirm Yalçın’s outlet.

CPJ previously documented nine of these detentions by Turkish police. CPJ emailed the Diyarbakır chief prosecutor’s office for comment but did not receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Tuesday evening, at least six journalists were detained by Istanbul police while covering a public gathering commemorating the 2013 Gezi Park protests near Taksim Square in the Beyoğlu district, according to multiple news reports, tweets from news outlets, and journalists at the scene. The police detained the journalists and others in attendance while attempting to break up the gathering.

The six were released from police custody on Wednesday morning, according to those sources. Those journalists, along with at least five others covering the gathering, were also pushed, beaten, or teargassed by police at the event.

“Police violence toward field reporters in Turkey is unacceptably routine. It is way past time to take concrete steps to end it,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Turkey’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, can easily stop this abnormally hostile behavior toward members of the press and should do it immediately, instead of turning a blind eye to lawlessness.”

CPJ emailed the Istanbul Police and Interior Ministry of Turkey for comment but did not receive a reply.

Meltem Akyol, a reporter for the leftist daily Evrensel, told CPJ via messaging app that she and the five other journalists taken into custody were manhandled by officers and handcuffed from behind, adding that the six plan to file a joint criminal complaint on Friday. Akyol tweeted that while she was detained, a police officer told her, “You are not my journalist.”

The five other journalists who were detained were:

• Gökay Başcan, a reporter for the leftist daily BirGün, who tweeted and told CPJ via messaging app that officers tightly restrained his hands behind his back with plastic handcuffs for two hours in a police van. In the following tweet, Başcan shared photographs of his injured wrists.
• Ozan Demiriz, a reporter for the pro-opposition Halk TV, who tweeted and told CPJ via messaging app that officers hit and kicked him while he was detained, resulting in fingernail marks on his arm and handcuff marks on his wrists. Demiriz also said that when he identified himself as a journalist, an officer replied, “You are not our journalist.”
• Dilan Polat, Sevda Doğan, and Derin Aydoğdu from independent Flash TV, according to independent news website Bianet. CPJ could not find contact information for the Flash TV journalists, calls to the outlet were unanswered, and CPJ was unable to confirm what role the three have at the outlet.

In addition, the following attacks on journalists covering the Tuesday gathering were reported:

• Police officers hit Erdinç Yılmaz, a reporter for Halk TV, in the head with a shield while he was on the air covering the gathering, according to a video by the outlet. CPJ could not find contact information for Yılmaz, and calls to Halk TV were unanswered.
• Reporter Engin Açar and camera operator Umutcan Yitük for the independent channel TV TELE1 went to a hospital after officers beat and used tear gas on Açar and kicked and threw Yitük to the ground, as the outlet reported and Açar tweeted. Yitük told CPJ via messaging app that he and Açar were injured but not seriously wounded, and they filed a criminal complaint.
• Police officers used tear gas on freelance journalist Hayri Tunç and AFP photojournalist Bülent Kılıç at close range, according to Tunç, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app and Bianet. Istanbul police also assaulted and detained Kılıç in June 2021, as CPJ documented. CPJ was unable to find contact information for Kılıç.

Police violence toward journalists in Istanbul is frequent, according to CPJ documentation. In June 2021, a mob attacked Turkish journalists in Istanbul, and police officers beat at least two reporters. Istanbul police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into a group of journalists in July 2021, and a similar incident occurred in February of that year.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.