25 Turkish Journalists Were Sentenced to Prison in Mass Media Trial

An Istanbul court on Thursday sentenced 25 journalists to prison terms of up to seven and a half years over links to the group blamed by Turkey for the 2016 failed coup, in a mass trial of media staff detained after the putsch bid.

Twenty-three of the journalists were convicted of membership of an armed terrorist group while two more on lesser charges.

Almost all of those jailed worked for media closed to the group of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says organized the coup bid. He denies the charges.

Many of those convicted worked for the Zaman newspaper, the most prominent of the media titles close to Gulen, which was taken over by the authorities in March 2016. Others worked for the magazine Aksiyon and the Rotahaber website, also considered close to Gulen.

Ten of those on trial were handed jail terms of seven and a half years, including Unal Tanik, a veteran Turkish journalist who was the editor-in-chief of Rotahaber.

Thirteen were sentenced to six years and three months in jail, including Hanim Busra Erdal, once a prominent columnist for Zaman.

Musician and journalist Atilla Tas was given a three year one month sentence on charges of assisting Gulen’s group and journalist Murat Aksoy two years and one month on the same charge.

Both were, however, allowed to go free on the condition they did not leave Turkey. A total of 19 of the suspects were already being held in jail ahead of the verdict.

Writing on Twitter, Mr. Aksoy insisted he was innocent and denied he had aided any “organization” in his writings. “My writings may have been critical but don’t deserve to be punished. I also don’t deserve to be punished, just for being a journalist.”

The Turkish authorities have detained dozens of journalists in the crackdown after the failed coup. Not all were considered close to Gulen, with some sympathetic to the Kurdish cause or simply critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey says such measures imposed under the state of emergency in place since July 2016 are needed to eradicate the influence of Gulen from Turkish society.

The Islamic preacher, despite having not set foot in Turkey since 1999, built up a network of supporters in the media, judicial system and police as well as running a successful system of private schools. Most of his followers have been sent to jail to varying periods of time (over 100,000) and all Gulen-linked institutions, including media, schools, universities, and hospitals, were shut down.

Gulen and his supporters, however, deny any link to the coup bid and insist they are victims of a witch hunt.