Journalist Özgür Boğatekin probed over Facebook post against racist attack

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An investigation has been opened against journalist Özgür Boğatekin over a Facebook post including a video of a racist attack against seasonal agricultural workers in Sakarya, northwestern Turkey.

Charged with "inciting people into enmity and hatred," he has been summoned to the prosecutor's office to give a statement.

Boğatekin is the news director of Gerger Fırat newspaper, a local outlet based in the southeastern Adıyaman province.

Sharing the video of the attack on Facebook, Boğatekin wrote "They tethered the rocks and unleashed the dogs against Kurds."

The security Directorate stated in its open-source inquiry report that the screenshots of posts "that might be an element of a crime" were put into the investigation file.

"We are no longer able to work"

Speaking to bianet, Boğatekin said, "We are no longer able to work. They open an investigation into every news report, every sentence, every word of us."

He said that he quoted the post from a "Nasreddin Hoca" tale. "My post received many likes and was shared many times. Adıyaman Anti-Cyber ​​Crimes Branch opened an investigation 5 minutes after my post."

"Because of the weekend, they summoned me to the security directorate on Monday, they told me to come but didn't tell why. Then I thought it was about my posts about the cult leader who was arrested for sexual abuse of a child in Sakarya," he added.

He only learned what he was charged with after going to the security directorate, he noted.

Boğatekin recalled that another investigation was opened against them a month ago: "In the last month, the security directorate carried out an operation against a child who was charged with theft. It invited all journalists. It exposed the child without censoring him because he is a thief. Then we made a new report with those images. We reported the incident as 'Big operation in Adıyaman: 10 police officers for one child.' One day after the incident, an investigation was opened against us."

"They open an investigation against every new report, every post, every sentence of us. We would doubt ourselves had these investigations not exist. If they open investigations, we understand that we are the only working pen in Adıyaman," he said. (HA/VK)