A senior post officer, who allegedly shared politically offensive news articles and caricatures on his Facebook wall, was sentenced to a 6.080 Lira fine for insulting Prime Minister Erdoğan.

PEN International President Saul reiterated his concerns over a rising number of writers, journalists and publishers in prison or on trial in Turkey, requesting that the government review the Anti-terror Act for the legitimate exercise of the right to peaceful freedom of expression.

"We see PM Erdogan advocating for death penalty now, but we should also remember how he used to read aloud death row prisoner's letters in his public speeches."

Calling hunger strikes as “show”, “blackmail” and citing examples from the world, PM Erdogan declared on Sunday: “We should reconsider the death penalty in Turkey.”

When people ask me, "what is the most important thing you learned about Bobby Sands?" I tell them one simple thing. The most important thing about Bobby Sands is not how he died on hunger strike, it is how he lived.

The Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDP) Mersin Deputy Ertuğrul Kürkçü spoke to bianet about the trying conditions in prisons where hundreds of inmates launched a hunger strike over a month ago. Lawyer Cemil Özen also warned about the prisoners’ deteriorating health condition.

A court in Istanbul sentenced journalist Reyhan Çapan, the editor-in-chief and publisher of the daily Özgür Gündem, to one year and three months in prison for a single headline that appeared on the paper.

Metin Bakkalcı, the head of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV,) spoke to bianet about the ongoing hunger strikes initiated by 615 inmates to protest the obstacles that lie before the use of the Kurdish language and the continued isolation of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK.)

Turkey falls into a category all on its own with respect to clamping down on journalists, according to a new report published by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ.) The report indicates that Turkey broke its own record in arresting journalists, with some 76 press workers currently serving time behind bars.

The Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning approved a decision to fill the coastline in Istanbul’s Yenikapı district with land and transform it into a meeting square. Critics, however, believe a nearby UNESCO World Heritage Site is likely to be the first victim of that scheme and that the project has to do with the politics of public space.

Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals ratified a life-time imprisonment sentence against Atılım newspaper’s editor-in-chief Hatice Duman, just as it overturned a sentence of nearly 19 years in prison for journalist Necati Abay who was also standing trial in the same case.

The Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation against the organizing committee of the Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDP) Second Extraordinary Congress only a day after the convention. Members of the committee stand accused of making terrorist propaganda.