Trial of 18 Kurdish journalists begins in Diyarbakir court

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Turkish court in Diyarbakir (Amed) province on Tuesday held the first hearing of the trial of 18 Kurdish journalists, most of whom have been in jail for more than a year accused of having links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The defendants argue that they have been targeted as part of state efforts to suppress Kurdish media.

In June last year, Turkish police raided several Kurdish news outlets and detained 22 journalists, the majority of whom were remanded into custody and accused of having ties with PKK-affiliated media, state media reported at the time. Mezopotamya news agency, whose journalists were among those targeted, reported on Tuesday that the trial of 18 journalists, three of whom have not been detained yet, began in Diyarbakir.  

The journalists are accused of “membership in a terrorist organization,” according to the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), a non-profit rights organization that closely follows the case. MLSA quoted Mehmet Sahin, one of the journalists, telling the judges in Kurdish that the prosecutor who filed the case against them “surely knows that we are not guilty.” He asserted that they have been targeted in a bid to “dissolve Kurdish journalism.”  

“Those who detained us had to invent a crime for us. They tried to create this crime for 10 months. A total of 399 days later, we are in front of the judge. This is a great injustice,” said Sahin. 

 MLSA also cited journalist Serdar Altan as saying in court, “This is a case of eliminating and neutralising journalism. In a country where Kurds are not accepted, Kurdish journalists are not being accepted either." 

The hearing was adjourned to Wednesday morning when lawyers for 13 of the journalists will present their case, according to MLSA. 

The PKK is an armed group fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. It is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara. 

Global press freedom monitor Reporters Without Borders has placed Turkey 165th out of 180 countries on its Press Freedom Index for 2023. Ankara was 149th on the list the previous year.