Turkish court quashes journalist’s prison sentence
Ayla Albayrak won an appeal against a 2017 terror conviction for reporting on the Kurdish insurgency for the Wall Street Journal, but she doubts the court was motivated by concern for press freedom.
ISTANBUL — A Turkish court has overturned a conviction against a former Wall Street Journal reporter in a rare victory for the country’s beleaguered press, boosting hopes the government would relax its clampdown on the media as it seeks to repair relations with Western allies.
Journalist Ayla Albayrak won her appeal on Tuesday against a verdict handed down last year that she had disseminated terrorist propaganda by writing a story about clashes between the military and Kurdish militants in southeastern Turkey in 2015. She faced two years and one month in prison, but was free pending the appeal.
The higher court cited procedural reasons, including the statute of limitations, in its decision, and the prosecutor now has two weeks to appeal, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The ruling offers a sliver of hope to the hundreds of journalists in Turkey prosecuted in connection with their reporting. About 150 of them are behind bars, according to Human Rights Watch, making Turkey the world’s biggest jailer of journalists.
