Turkey issues two-year-imprisonment sentence against journalist
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Friday, a Turkish court issued a two-year-imprisonment sentence against a Turkish journalist for charges of insulting the government and the Turkish president.
The 52-year-old television journalist, Sedef Kabas, who mainly covers the Turkish politics, has been detained since January and she was sentenced for two years and four months in jail yesterday.
Reuters cited her lawyer Bahar Unluer Ozturk as saying that she was released pending an appeal against the verdict.
Those close to Erdogan’s government control mainstream media with coverage favoring his administration, according to Reuters.
According to a UN Report released in 2018, several journalists, parliamentarians and jurists in addition to the presidential candidate of the HDP in the 2014 presidential election Selahattin Demirtas were imprisoned.
In November 2016, during the failed coup in Turkey, the previous co-presidents of the party Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ were arrested by Turkish authorities on charges of “propagating a terrorist organization,” and Demirtaş faces penalties of up to 142 years.
The Turkish government ended the state of emergency nationwide in July 2018, but the state of emergency in Turkey continued under the name of fighting terrorism.