Kurdish journalist gets 14 years in Turkey, others await similar fate
Despite flimsy evidence and opaque proceedings, today was a terrible day in court for several Turkish journalists.
Today was another dark day for the press in Turkey as assorted journalists appeared in court and were either convicted or denied acquittal on varying terror charges, thereby ensuring that the country retains its title as the world's biggest jailer of journalists for a third consecutive year.
Take Ziya Ataman, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish DIHA news agency, was slapped with 14 years and two months for alleged membership of a terrorist organization, shorthand in this case for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Including a lengthy pre-trial detention period, Ataman has already spent three years in a maximum security prison in the southeastern city of Van as his health steadily deteriorated, his lawyer Zelal Dogan told Al-Monitor.
The case fits a pattern of prosecution being used to intimidate numerous Kurdish and pro-Kurdish journalists working for outlets sympathetic to Kurds’ decades-long struggle for linguistic and political rights, and in some instances, to the PKK.
