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Fear is growing for journalist Ceyda Karan, after the arrest on 31 October of the director, Murat Sabuncu, and 12 other colleagues at the progressive secular newspaper “Cumhuriyet” (“Republic”).
Karan is expected in Italy at the Forum of Mediterranean Women Journalists on November 23-24, but the flurry of arrests by the Turkish police makes her present position very critical.
Karan was sentenced last April to two years’ imprisonment for “offenses against religious values” and “incitement to hatred” for having published Charlie Hebdo cartoons in Cumhuriyet, following the attack on the French satirical magazine. However, after the judgment of the Istanbul court, the reporter has not lost her fighting spirit and wrote on Twitter that her conviction “is a gift to our liberal fascists”, a clear reference to Erdogan. The reaction of the union of Italian journalists was also prompt: http://www.articolo21.org/
Meanwhile, the Turkish president further tightened the noose of repression by arresting colleagues of Ceyda Karan during a spectacular raid a few days ago, and muzzling the oldest and most authoritative newspaper of opposition in Turkey. The Islamist government thus shows the world its ferocious face.
We look forward to meeting Ceyda Karan in Bari and Lecce to hear directly from her the story of the democratic involution of the Turkish republic.
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