The Turkish representative for advocacy group Reporters Without Borders has been acquitted in a national court, after facing charges of spreading terrorist propaganda.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) representative Erol Onderoglu faced 14 years in jail. He was acquitted alongside author Ahmet Nesin and Human Rights Foundation of Turkey president Sebnem Korur Fincanci on Wednesday. They had faced similar allegations.
The three press freedom campaigners were accused of spreading terrorist propaganda and incitement to crime, in the Caglayan courthouse in Istanbul.
“I warmly thank all those who supported us during the trial,” Onderoglu told the AFP news agency in a text message.
Palace of Justice in Istanbul. Photo: Reuters
‘The fight continues’
“The fight continues for all our colleagues unjustly on trial or imprisoned,” he added. The three defendants had already served time in 2016 when they were initially arrested, and are now able to apply for financial compensation for that time spent in jail.
Onderoglu also faces another legal case in November, for supporting Turkish academics, who had signed a letter asking for an end to the fighting between Turkish armed forces, and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The acquittal of @ErolOnderoglu, who is the @RSF_inter representative in #Turkey, is a great victory for justice and press freedom, both of which are violated on a daily basis in that country. It represents a huge hope for all the journalists who remain arbitrarily detained. pic.twitter.com/DzyzHgbMDg
— Christophe Deloire (@cdeloire) July 17, 2019
RSF chief Christophe Deloire hailed the verdict on Twitter as a “great victory for justice and press freedom, both of which are violated on a daily basis.”
“It represents a huge hope for all the journalists who remain arbitrarily detained,” he said. The organization ranks Turkey 157th out of 180 countries worldwide for press freedom.
Little press freedom
Along with his two colleagues, Onderoglu was on trial for guest editing the Ozgur Gundem, a newspaper focusing on Kurdish events.
They had also campaigned to keep the publication afloat after the Turkish government closed it in 2016. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan had alleged the paper was a propaganda outlet for the Kurdish PKK political party.
He closed the newspaper after the failed coup attempted in the same year. At least 250 people were killed after the military revolted against him.
The brutality of the failed military coup in 2016. Photo: Reuters.
Around 140 Turkey journalists are currently in jail, according to the P24 press website. Most were detained in 2016 under a state of emergency, declared by Erdogan after the coup attempt.
This article was originally published on Deutsche Welle.