On Monday, 31 October, IPI’s global network yesterday awoke to the news of the arrest of at least 13 journalists at the Turkish opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, among them IPI Executive Board Member Kadri Gürsel and IPI Member and Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Murat Sabuncu.
Gürsel, Sabuncu and their colleagues are the latest victims of the Turkish government’s unending crackdown on press freedom. On Saturday, using emergency powers enacted following a failed coup attempt in July, authorities ordered the closure of 15 pro-Kurdish media, many of which had been essential for coverage of anti-terror operations in the country’s southeast and investigating possible human rights violations there.
This week, IPI members from around the world are speaking out on behalf of Gürsel and his colleagues. They’re demanding the release of all detained journalists in Turkey and urging Turkey’s international partners to put pressure on the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
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