Middle-East Technical University student Edemir will remain in detention until the coming hearing on 23 June. The Istanbul 10th High Criminal Court did not take into consideration the prosecutor's final speech in favour of Edemir's release pending trial.

"They would have included me in such an operation anyways. This is because they decided to eliminate journalists like us and it seems that there is more to come. The questions I was asked go back as far as the time between 2003 and 2006".

The European Parliament's draft report on Turkey includes harsh criticism on press freedom, fair trials and prolonged periods of detention. The report points to restrictions of freedom of expressions constituted by the penal code and the Anti-Terror Law.

International journalism and human rights organizations condemned the arrests of journalists Şener and Şık. The freedom of expression organization IFEX called for the release of the journalists and for sending appeals to Justice Minister Ergin by fax and mail.

Tora Pekin, lawyer of arrested journalist Ahmet Şık, claims that both the investigation about his client and his arrest lack concrete evidence. Otherwise, the way the file is handled by the prosecution would constitute a violation of the right to defence, Pekin said.

Protestors in Ankara wore a black band around their mouths to express their protest against the arrest of journalists Şık and Şener. Press members in Istanbul called for legal amendments and the release of the detained journalists. HRW and RSF criticized the arrests and restriction on press freedom.

Sociologist Beşikçi was sentenced to 15 months in jail because of an article in the periodical of the Contemporary Lawyers Association. Lawyer and magazine executive Şimşek received a TL 16,660 monetary fine.

Journalists Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener were arrested by an Istanbul court on duty on Sunday because of their alleged affiliation to the Ergenekon terrorist organization. Journalists protested the arrests in front of the courthouse and blocked the road with a sit-down strike.

The Women Coordination against Violence and the Journalists Federation decided for a joint struggle against violence and social gender inequality in a meeting in Izmir on 2 March. They aim at a transformation of the sexist approach in the media.

The Court of Appeals upheld and finalized a five-month prison sentence for conscientious objector Savda on the grounds of a press release critic of Israel and supportive of Israeli conscientious objectors.

After eleven people, mostly journalists, were taken into custody under the Ergenekon investigation, the Turkish Journalists Association warned that "crimes of thought are on the rise again". The Contemporary Lawyers Association sees a fair trial endangered.

Many journalists were taken into police custody in the scope of the Ergenekon investigation after police raids on their homes and offices, among them journalists Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener. The latter one recently claimed that he received according threats.