Committee to Protect Journalists | Today’s Zaman | Hurriyet Daily News
On Tuesday, the editor in chief and managing editor of Nokta magazine were arrested in Istanbul, Volkan Cansiz reported for Today’s Zaman, “under Article 313 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) for inciting the public to armed conflict.” Turkey held elections on Nov. 1, and leading up to the elections, another media organization critical of the government was raided and taken over by a trustee committee.
Nokta, which is known for its critical stance toward the government, announced the decision on its website, saying the police had confiscated all the magazines at its headquarters and started collecting issues at distribution centers.
Nokta’s cover features a picture of President Erdoğan and says Nov. 2 is the “start of Turkey’s civil war.”
ÇATIŞMALI DÖNEM
92. yılında bir ülke çatırdarken
https://t.co/adHK6XdezN pic.twitter.com/B0dt3blCOB
— NOKTA (@noktadergi) November 2, 2015
Copies of the magazine were confiscated, Hurriyet Daily News reports, “on the grounds that it ‘incites crime’ due [to] its cover, less than two months after it was first confiscated for ‘insulting the president.’”
On Wednesday, Committee to Protect Journalists called for the release of the two editors, Cevheri Güven and Murat Çapan.
With the arrests of Güven and Çapan, the number of journalists imprisoned in Turkey is now at least 11, CPJ research shows. The country’s press freedom record has significantly deteriorated in the past few months, CPJ research shows. Eight international press freedom groups, including CPJ, visited Istanbul and Ankara last month for meetings with local journalists, members of parliament, and foreign diplomats to discuss conditions for the press in Turkey. Following the visit, the Vienna-based International Press Institute, which led the mission, published a report highlighting the country’s troubling press freedom climate.
