Turkey: Detention warrants issued for 42 journalists over failed coup attempt

Detention warrants were issued for 42 journalists on July 25 as a part of ongoing investigations against members of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) says was behind the July 15 failed coup attempt. The detention warrants were issued by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Terrorism and Organized Crime Bureau.

“The only organization that I’m a member of is [the] Turkish Journalists Association [TGC]. My only profession is journalism,” Bülent Mumay, who was among the journalists whom a warrant was issued for, wrote on his Twitter account, as he added that he would go to the prosecutor’s office to testify.

Another name in the list, Ercan Gün, who is the news director of broadcaster Fox TV, said that he will also testify.

“I trust the law even during the state of emergency,” Gün wrote on his Twitter account.

A total of 14 journalists have been detained so far while 11 were abroad, according to Doğan News Agency. Eight among the journalists abroad left Turkey after July 15 and three of them left before the failed bid, the agency also said.

The gendarmerie, police and coast guard have conducted searches to apprehend Nazlı Ilıcak, a former parliamentarian and journalist who was also on the list.

The police determined at around 5 a.m. on July 25 that Ilıcak was in the Bodrum district of the southern province of Muğla and started carrying out searches in the places she might possibly be.

Security officials couldn’t find Ilıcak at either her house or her yacht.

Meanwhile, a statement was released from the International Press Institute regarding the issue, which “expressed alarm” at the development.

“Given recent developments, we fear that this is only the first wave of arrests targeting journalists in a crackdown that increasingly resembles a witch hunt,” IPI Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M. Ellis said.

“We urge Turkey’s international partners not to turn a blind eye to the human rights abuses being carried out in the name of upholding democracy. To do so invites a degree of authoritarianism and impunity that will only destabilize the region even further,” the statement also read.

The list of the journalists for whom a detention warrant was issued is as follows:

Abdullah Abdulkadiroğlu, Abdullah Kılıç, Ahmet Dönmez, Ali Akkuş, Arda Akın, Ayşe Nazlı Ilıcak, Bayram Kaya, Bilal Şahin, Bülent Ceyhan, Bülent Mumay, Bünyamin Köseli, Cemal Azmi Kalyoncu, Cevheri Güven, Cihan Acar, Cuma Ulus, Emre Soncan, Ercan Gün, Erkan Akkuş, Ertuğrul Erbaş, Fatih Akalan, Fatih Yağmur, Habip Güler, Hanım Büşra Erdal, Haşim Söylemez, Hüseyin Aydın, İbrahim Balta, Kamil Maman, Kerim Gün, Levent Kenez, Mahmut Hazar, Mehmet Gündem, Metin Yıkar, Muhammed Fatih Uğur, Mustafa Erkan Acar, Mürsel Genç, Selahattin Sevi, Seyid Kılıç, Turan Görüryılmaz, Ufuk Şanlı, Ufuk Emin Köroğlu, Yakup Sağlam and Yakup Çetin.