Feza Media is said to have close connections with Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric and an outspoken opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his policies whom authorities accuse of having been behind the failed coup.
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“The prosecutors aren’t interested in what individual columnists wrote or said”.
The Turkish government has cracked down on independent media since an attempted coup on July 15, shutting down at least 45 newspapers and 16 TV stations, The Associated Press reports.
The journalists worked for the Gulen-linked Zaman newspaper, which was seized by Turkish authorities in March as part of a clampdown on the preacher’s supporters.
In March, Zaman and its sister English-language newspaper Today’s Zaman were taken over by state-appointed administrators and it has since taken a strongly pro-government line.
They have sharply accelerated the crackdown since the coup attempt, suspending, detaining or placing under investigation more than 60,000 soldiers, police, teachers, judges, civil servants and others.
Among those wanted in the new swoop are former Zaman editor-in-chief Abdulhamit Bilici, and former Today’s Zaman editor-in-chief and columnist Bulent Kenes, according to the Hurriyet newspaper.
Wednesday’s warrants came after authorities on Monday issued another 42 arrest warrants for journalists, including prominent veteran reporters.
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Some former writers on the arrest warrant list are believed to be out of the country. Tens of thousands of other state employees with suspected links to Gulen have been suspended from their jobs in sectors including education, health care, city government and even Turkish Airlines. An ally-turned-foe of Erdogan, he had built up an extensive network of schools, charities and businesses in Turkey over decades.
