Five journalists, including bianet editor, detained over 'retweets,' lawyer reveals

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The reason for the detention of five journalists today was a tweet about another case against media workers, the lawyer following the case has revealed.

Those detained during raids at their residences are Evrim Kepenek, the women and LGBTI+ rights editor at bianet, Sibel Yükler, a reporter for the T24 news portal, Delal Akyüz and Fırat Can Arslan, both reporters for Mezopotamya Agency (MA), and Evrim Deniz.

The investigation against them was triggered by Arslan's report, which brought attention to the marriage between one of the judges overseeing the Diyarbakır-based case against 18 Kurdish media workers and the prosecutor who prepared the indictment.

In that case, 15 journalists were released on July 12, after a year in pretrial detention. Subsequently, the married judge and prosecutor were relocated from Diyarbakır to Samsun, according to Arslan's report based on a public announcement from the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK), the country's judicial overseeing body. 

Arslan had shared his report on Twitter, and the other three journalists retweeted it, leading to the current investigation by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

Lawyer Resul Temur told bianet that the journalists are being accused of "revealing the identity of a public official" and "marking a counterterrorism official as a target."

He said that he had met with the prosecutor, but they have not yet obtained detailed information about the content of the case file.

Police interrogations

After the interrogations of Yükler and Arslan have concluded at the police station, the lawyer representing them, Nuray Özdoğan, told bianet that the police officers had asked them why Arslan posted the original tweet and why they had retweeted it.

In response to these inquiries, the journalists firmly asserted that the retweeted post held significant news value and was a part of their journalistic activity, according to the lawyer. They maintained that the information shared in the post was not confidential but rather a public decision from the Council Judges and Prosecutors (HSK). The journalists denied any intent of targeting or endangering anyone through their retweets. 

(RT/VK)