Two Journalists Jailed over Reports on Feminicides, Gold Mine Protests

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Reporters Ruken Demir from the Mezopotamya Agency and Melike Aydın from Jin News were detained in police raids in their houses on November 12 and was arrested by the İzmir 1st Penal Court of Peace on November 16 on the charge of "acting on behalf of a terrorist organization.

The revealed court minutes show that the reporters' acts of journalism were counted as a crime. Reports on ill prisoners' meeting with their families, feminicides and the gold mine project on the Ida (Kaz) Mountains were considered as a "scheme" and "order" for an insurgency.

The prosecutor considered the reports as evidence of the offense of "acting on behalf of an illegal organization" and alleged that the reports were written "upon orders by the illegal organization."

The prosecutor also alleged that Aydın had a phone call with the members of the Çiğli Women's Platform upon an order by the organization. The Platform, upon an order by the illegal organization, "smeared the state" on the excuse of the killing of two women, Habibe Çelik and Fatma Akdağ.

A report on the Avesta for Language and Culture Research Association by Aydın was also included in the minutes. The prosecutor accused the association of "depicting Kurdish as the official language of the so-called Kurdistan."

Demir and Aydın's reports on the protests against a gold mine project on Ida Mountains in Çanakkale was considered as a "fictive report" to initiate an "uprising" like the 2013 Gezi Park protests. (HA/VK)