The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported the situation regarding 6 journalists in custody for 18 days in Istanbul, Turkey to the Council of Europe’s Platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists.

The six journalists were detained on December 25, 2016 for covering Erdoğan’s son in law and Minister of Energy Berat Albayrak’s e-mails leaked by hacker group Redhack. They are kept at Istanbul Police Headquarters since.

The related statement reported to the Council of Europe’s Platform to promote the protection of journalism and safety of journalists is as follows:

"Journalists and media workers Tunca Öğreten (freelance), Mahir Kanaat (BirGün daily), Ömer Celik (DIHA news director), Metin Yoksa (DIHA correspondent), Eray Saygin (Yolculuk daily) and Derya Okatan (ETHA) have been detained by Turkish authorities on 25 December 2016 at 04:30 from their homes in Istanbul, Ankara and Diyarbakır. Derya Okatan (ETHA) is on hunger strike against “state of emergency rulings” since 25 December and Ömer Celik (DIHA) was allegedly beaten during his arrest.

Under the state of emergency, Turkish authorities have extended the detention period from 4 to 30 days and lawyers have no access to journalists for more than 5 days.

No official reason has been given for these arrests and the journalists claim that they are being badly treated in detention."