The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urges Turkish authorities to release the seven journalists who were jailed in Istanbul on Sunday and allow the media to report freely. The journalists were imprisoned in Istanbul for protesting the killing of two colleagues in the autonomous region of North and East Syria on 19 December. They are charged with ‘propaganda for a terrorist organisation’. Five other journalists were placed under judicial control.

On Thursday last week, Kurdish journalists Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin were murdered in a targeted drone attack by the Turkish state south of Kobanê. Both had been working for the Kurdish media for many years and were most recently reporting from the Euphrates front about the attacks by the Turkish army and the jihadist alliance SNA on the self-governing Rojava.

“The Turkish government is attempting to control the flow of news about Syria by intimidating the press, as evidenced by the arrest of journalists at a protest, the house arrest of Özlem Gürses, and other legal actions,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities must immediately release the imprisoned journalists and media workers, free Gürses, and allow members of the media to do their jobs without fear of retaliation.”

On Saturday, press associations based in Turkey wanted to make a public statement in Istanbul against the murder of their colleagues. However, the police forcibly prevented the gathering and detained almost 60 people. One day later, a court of emergency issued arrest warrants against seven journalists and two local politicians from the DEM Party.

The arrested press workers are critical and independent journalists. They work for media such as the pro-Kurdish newspaper ‘Yeni Yaşam’, the left-wing news agency Etha and the socialist newspaper ‘Mücadele Birliği’. If they are charged, they could face up to five years in prison. In addition to the CPJ, the International Federation of Journalists IFJ also called on the Turkish government to release the arrested journalists immediately.

In a separate incident on Saturday, an Istanbul court put journalist Özlem Gürses under house arrest pending trial on suspicion of demeaning the Turkish military over her comments on her YouTube channel regarding Turkey’s military presence in Syria. Gürses continues broadcasting from her home in Istanbul.

In another incident, the chief prosecutor’s office in Istanbul opened an investigation into the Bar Association of Istanbul for suspicion of terrorism propaganda and spreading misinformation due to its statement on Saturday calling for an investigation into the suspected Turkish drone killings of the two journalists, and the release of journalists and others detained in Istanbul at the protest against their deaths.

On the other hand, Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation against T24 and journalist Seyhan Avşar on charges of "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" and "publicly spreading misleading information." The investigation was launched following the publication of an article titled "Journalists Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin Killed in Syria" on T24 and a social media post by journalist Avşar.

In her social media post, Seyhan Avşar wrote: "...Does someone need to share our views or adopt the same journalistic approach as us for us to defend their rights? By whose standards are we labeled 'terrorists'? How quickly we adopt the alienating rhetoric of others. Are we standing up for Sinan Ateş’s rights today just because we share the same worldview? What will we do when a journalist whose perspective we don’t agree with is killed? Will we remain silent? Will our pursuit of justice and truth depend on where people stand, or what positions they hold? Shame on us, truly shame on us. Yesterday, two journalists born and raised on this land were killed by drones. We remained silent while they were killed, and the more silent we are, the smaller we become…"