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Northern Cypriot journalists targeted by Turkish authorities

IPI condemns defamation charges filed against representatives of Afrika newspaper

Northern Cypriot journalists targeted by Turkish authorities

On July 31, 2018, the director and editor-in-chief of Afrika, an independent political newspaper in Northern Cyprus, were surprised by a knock on the door from Northern Cypriot police, asking them to respond to a case filed against the paper by Turkish prosecutors in Ankara.

Editor-in-Chief Şener Levent and the Director Ali Osman Tabak are facing defamation charges in two separate cases in Turkey, while further charges of “defaming a foreign politician” have been filed in Northern Cyprus. The accusations are based on two articles, both authored by Levent and published on January 21 and February 1 of this year, that harshly criticized Turkey’s politics and the country’s influence over Northern Cyprus. The January 21 article referred to Turkey’s military operation in Afrin, Syria as a “second invasion”, referring to Turkey’s incursion into Cyprus in 1974 as the “first”.

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