The editor of Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper, Can Dundar, and his Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul, are facing more than 20 years in jail on spying charges.
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A court on Thursday ordered the arrest of Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper, and senior editor Erdem Gul over the publication of footage purporting to show the state intelligence agency helping send weapons to Syria.
According to Cumhuriyet, Turkish security forces in January 2014 intercepted a convoy of trucks near the Syrian border.
Dundar, speaking before his trial on Thursday, expressed defiance.
Two Turkish journalists charged with “spying” over their reports about Ankara’s alleged arms supplies to Syrian rebels urged the European Union on Saturday not to compromise on human rights and press freedom as it looks to Turkey to help stem Europe’s migrant crisis.
The government said that “the intelligence trucks were carrying aid to the Turkmen minority in Syria”.
The office of the Turkish daily Hurriyet was vandalized following criticism of the newspaper by Erdogan.
Crowds filled the yard and a street outside of Cumhuriyet’s headquarters, chanting: “Free press can not be silenced”.
According to the paper, the trucks were carrying six steel containers, with 1,000 artillery shells, 50,000 machine gun rounds, 30,000 heavy machine gun rounds and 1,000 mortar shells for anti-Assad extremists in Syria.
“All opposition press organisations that are abiding by the ethics of journalism and trying to do their journalism are under threat and under attack”, Figen Yuksekdag, co-chairwoman of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, said at the Istanbul protest.
The U.S. Department of State discussed the recent arrest of journalists in Turkey, who had reported on the weapons supply to the Islamic State group from Ankara.
The pair are also accused of leaking state secrets “for the purposes of military or political espionage”.
“The public’s right to know can only be guaranteed with freedom of the press”. The investigation against them has been launched after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan filed a criminal complaint accusing the journalists of revealing state secrets and aiding terrorists. “What we have done here was a journalistic activity”. “Whoever wrote this story can pay a significant cost because of this”, Mr Erdogan said on television in May.
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Now, both journalists face potential lifetime imprisonment, Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reports. Main opposition party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said the decision marked a “black day” for democracy and freedoms.
