Turkish journalist, TV channel editor detained over last year’s tweets

Turkey has arrested the chief news editor of the Istanbul-based private IMC TV channel over posting some tweets he shared on his account last year, including retweets of the views of two prominent pro-Kurdish commentators.

Turkish security police arrested Hamza Aktan, 33, during a raid into his house in Bahçelievler district at dawn on Saturday and took him to the provincial police department in Aksaray district to be interrogated by counter-terrorism unit about his tweets, which he posted in 2015, the channel said in a statement.

Aktan was released after being held in custody for some 12 hours, but he still faces accusations from prosecutors of making propaganda for a “terror group", it added. According to IMC, he was released under judicial control, meaning that he will have to report regularly to the police.

“Judicial control, like detention, is a form of punishment. This is right neither as a journalist or as a citizen. This is a challenge to freedom of expression,” pro-Kurdish IMC quoted Aktan as saying after his release.

According to the statement, Aktan was interrogated partly for tweets he posted about the number of civilians, who had lost their lives in the ongoing clashes between government forces and members of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). “For what purpose you shared those reports?” he was asked, IMC TV said.

He was also interrogated for sharing tweets posted by journalists, Nurcan Baysal and Mutlu Çiviroğlua and for retweeting a request by the BBC for information from the Kurdish town of Cizre, while it was experiencing a tense military curfew.

“Right from the beginning there has been a clampdown and pressure directed at IMC as well as freedom of expression. Unfortunately, this is going to continue,” said channel's director Eyup Burc.

IMC TV, which has been broadcasting online after being taken off air in February, has been accused of broadcasting “terrorist propaganda.”

Last Sunday, Turkey detained Dutch journalist Ebru Umar, of Turkish origin, for writing a piece critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the Dutch daily Metro.

Turkey has been under fire for clamping down on journalists since Erdogan came to power in 2014, after being over a decade as premier. Dozens of journalists are put behind bars. Activists say Erdogan has filed hundreds of court cases against critics, including many journalists, for insulting him since he became president.

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