Kurdish journalists left without computers after police raid

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A week ago, police conducted raids in nine cities as part of an investigation into two Kurdish media outlets, the Mezopotamya Agency (MA) and the JINNEWS.

Eleven journalists were arrested for "being a member of a terrorist organization" in what was the second mass detention of journalists in four months. Sixteen journalists who were arrested in Diyarbakır in June are still behind bars.

The office jointly used by the two agencies in Ankara, the capital, suffered the heaviest damage. During the raid there, police seized all computers, even though they didn't take cameras and other digital devices.

Currently, there are only two computers in the office. One was brought by Özgür Paksoy, an editor who came from Diyarbakır after the raid, and another was temporarily given by a reader in an act of solidarity.

"This is extortion"

Given that 10 journalists currently work at the office, with seven from MA and three from JINNEWS, they now have to take turns to use the two computers, said Paksoy.

"In this economic [situation], we try to find computers from friends and acquaintances," he said. "Among our colleagues, there are ones who try to report news using their phones. But not everyone can be practical on the phone.

"Moreover, we need computers to upload photos or videos. Editing photos and videos is a different matter.

"There is no crime, but both our colleagues were arrested, and our computers are gone. Not only the computers of the office, but they also confiscated our personal computers. They dropped the camera of a friend of ours during the house raid. Its lens was broken. This is punishment.

"We had experienced a similar process after our report on the two people who were thrown from a helicopter in Van. they had confiscated computers during the raid. It took a year to put things together in Van. And now this... It's a financial burden. Let me be clear, it's called extortion.

"We report the news. Today alone, we sent 12-13 reports from Ankara. We lay claim to the honor of the profession. We expect solidarity from our colleagues." (HA/VK)