DİYARBAKIR - Journalist Ceylan Şahinli, who was released after 7 months of detention, stated that they wanted to criminalize their professional activities and said that they would insist on journalism despite all the pressures.

 

Diren Yurtsever, Editor-in-Chief of the Mesopotamia Agency (MA), who was detained on October 20, 2022 as part of the investigation carried out by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, and arrested on October 29 on the allegation of "being a member of a terrorist organization", correspondents Selman Güzelyüz, Deniz Nazlım, Berivan Altan, Emrullah Acar, Hakan Yalçın, Ceylan Şahinli and JINNEWS reporters Habibe Eren and Öznur Değer were released in the first hearing of the lawsuit, held on May 16. Journalist Hamdullah Bayram, who was arrested on March 2, 2023, as part of the file, was given a decision to continue his detention.

 

MA reporter Ceylan Şahinli, who was released at the first hearing, talked about the process of her detention and the violations in the prison.

 

'WE TRAVELLED IN HANDCUFFS FOR ABOUT 10 HOURS'

 

Stating that they wanted to create a perception through the operation against journalists and touched upon the practices made during the operation, Şahinli said: "The mise-en-scene images were consciously served to the mainstream media, Şahinli said: “Although there were 5 people in the police vehicle, 30 police officers got into the vehicle. Despite the fact that our vehicle was followed by 3 armed vehicles, we traveled in handcuffs for about 10 hours."

 

TORTURE IN ANKARA POLICE

 

Describing the rights violations they were subjected to while they were taken to the police station for fingerprints, Şahinli said: “Our friend Öznur was subjected to physical torture by 5 police officers in front of the cameras. A policeman stepped on our friend's back. We asked for the camera recordings, if the recordings were shown, everything would be revealed. We were never taken for examination, starting from the detention process to the stage of being taken to prison; however, in our indictment, a doctor's report was included as 'examination'. There was such an unlawfulness.”

 

'JOURNALISM IS CRIMINALIZED'

 

Referring to the accusations in the file, Şahinli said: "Journalism is being tried to be criminalized. They asked absurd questions, from the money we sent to our friends in the amount of 50 TL and 100 TL, to the cities we went to for the news. These questions show how they criminalize journalism.”

 

Şahinli said that on February 10, 2013, in the event that her schoolmate Şahin Öner died as a result of being hit by an armored police vehicle, the governor of the period announced that Öner died as a result of the explosion of the bomb he was trying to throw at the police, and that she realized the importance of journalism due to this situation, and explained why she insisted on journalism. .Şahinli said: “I learned that a young man named Şahin Öner, who I was studying at the same school, died one morning. The armored vehicle had passed over him. Mainstream media, on the other hand, said that he died while throwing a bomb. Dicle News Agency (DİHA) revealed that Öner died as a result of being crushed in his preliminary autopsy. My acquaintance with the Kurdish Question started here. So I decided to study journalism. I saw a difference between what I saw and what the mainstream saw."

 

Emphasizing that they insist on journalism despite all the pressures, Şahinli called for unrelenting solidarity against the pressures against the Kurdish press and said: "I want them to defend journalism not only for us, but also for themselves."

 

MA / Mehmet Güleş