By İHSAN YILMAZ
The rule of law means that everyone, including journalists, can be tried before judicial courts.
Why would a judge imprison a journalist for news that he published several years ago who is no longer in a position to destroy any evidence since he submitted them all to the court at the time and who has not been running away from justice despite all forms of threats and constant arrest warrants? It is crystal clear that Erdoğan does not want critical journalism.
Baransu has not only been criticizing the government but also informing the public about the probable crimes of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) in Uludere (Roboski) and the Reyhanlı bombings. This has obviously infuriated Erdoğan, who believes MİT is the most important state institution, as he told journalists on his way back from Saudi Arabia a few days ago. To him, it is not courts, schools, hospitals, Parliament and so on that is the most state institution but MİT, presenting us with yet another clue about his desire to change Turkey into an Assadist regime where the intelligence agency is the heart and brain of the state system.
Erdoğan was, of course, not happy. Only a few journalists have dared to question his dear MİT, and Baransu is among them. Erdoğan is now sending a message to all other journalists to know their place and behave.
MİT has been doing all forms of work for the Erdoğan regime. The Western media is full of reports about its activities. These are theoretically confidential activities but almost everyone, with the exception of Turkish citizens, knows what exactly MİT has been doing in Turkey and abroad. When Angela Merkel confessed that Germany has been wiretapping Turkish officials, Erdoğan, who had the nationalistic opportunity to roar and challenge Merkel, very softly and nicely stated that big powers do such things. This was very un-Erdoğan like! It is not difficult to guess that the German (and many other) states have enough concrete evidence against MİT and its owner, Erdoğan. Germany arrested three MİT officials a few months ago and Erdoğan has been paralyzed on this too. Libyan authorities accused Turkey of smuggling weapons to rebels and will stop the operations of Turkish contractors soon. This will cost the Turkish economy billions of dollars. There were accusations that Turkish Airlines (THY) was being used to carry weapons to Boko Haram.
Source: todayzaman