Reporters Face Prison Sentences

Serap Kervanci, the documentary cameraman of the Foundation of Science Education Aesthetic Culture Art Research (BEKSAV), Burcu Gumus, Selver Orman, Seda Aktepe, Nuray Kesik, and Ufuk Han of the weekly " Atilim " (Leap) newspaper, and Erin Sedefoglu, the owner and head of the "Dayanisma" (Solidarity) magazine, amomg the forty-six people, who were detained during a demonstration by the Socialist Platform of the Oppressed protesting the draft Penal Execution Law, will stand trial on March 11 at an Ankara court.

The arrested women are jailed at Ulucanlar prison while the men are at the

Sincan F-type prison. The objection to the arrests had been rejected.

Journalists and movie-makers protested the arrests

The Ankara branch of the Turkish Journalists' Union (TGS), Contemporary Journalists' Association (CGD) and Solidarity Platform of the Arrested Journalists had reacted against the arrests and the police violence shortly after the detentions.

Kervanci, who has been working at BEKSAV for two years, and who previously made an anti-NATO documentary called "Deja-vu," said her camera was broken down during the demonstrations and she was detained. She said she is working on a project about prisons and was in Ankara to tape some images. Sultan Ozer, a reporter for the "Gunluk Evrensel" (Daily Evrensel) newspaper, was beaten up by the police, and applied for legal action.

BEKSAV, the Central Cinema Collective and the Yuz Cicek Acsin (May a Hundred Flowers Bloom) Culture Center, ESP members, actor Yusuf Cetin, director Ahmet Soner, and poet Ruhan Mavruk, organized a press conference and demanded that Serap Kervanci is released. (EO/BB)