{"id":40149,"date":"2019-07-17T19:23:34","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T19:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40149"},"modified":"2019-07-17T19:23:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T19:23:34","slug":"turkey-clears-rsf-representative-of-terror-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40149","title":{"rendered":"Turkey clears RSF representative of \u2018terror propaganda\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1527086\/middle-east\" readability=\"45\">\n<p>\nISTANBUL: The Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was acquitted on Wednesday of the charge of making \u201cterror propaganda\u201d for Kurdish militants, in a case which triggered international alarm over press freedom in the country.<br \/>With dozens of journalists behind bars and on trial, activists claim the climate for the media has deteriorated under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.<br \/>Supporters erupted into applause after RSF representative Erol Onderoglu, rights activist Sebnem Korur Fincanci and journalist Ahmet Nesin were acquitted by an Istanbul court.<br \/>They were accused of making \u201cterror propaganda\u201d on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK) after guest-editing the pro-Kurdish Turkish newspaper Ozgur Gundem, as well as \u201ccondoning crime\u201d and \u201cinciting crime.\u201d<br \/>The three risked 14 years in jail in the trial which began in November 2016.<br \/>Ozgur Gundem had invited guest editors to take control of the paper in a campaign of solidarity as it faced pressure from the Turkish authorities.<br \/>The newspaper was raided and permanently shut down in August 2016, accused of links with the PKK which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.<br \/>The three campaigners were detained for a short period in 2016, and can now apply for financial compensation for time spent in jail.<br \/>The acquittals are in stark contrast with the harsh verdicts handed down by Turkish courts to critical journalists in recent years, the most controversial of which was the case against opposition daily Cumhuriyet whose former staff have been sentenced to jail.<br \/>\u201cI warmly thank all those who supported us during the trial,\u201d Onderoglu, who will return to Istanbul next week, said via text message.<br \/>But he added: \u201cThe fight continues for all our colleagues unjustly on trial or imprisoned.\u201d<br \/>RSF said on Twitter it was \u201cdeeply relieved\u201d by the acquittals but called for another trial due to begin against Onderoglu later this year to be scrapped.<br \/>Onderoglu faces the same accusation of making \u201cterror propaganda\u201d after supporting academics who signed a petition calling for peace and the end of security operations against militants in the Kurdish-majority southeast.<br \/>\u201cThree years of absurd proceedings was already a form of unjust punishment. AND a new trial against Erol will start on 7 November. These charges must be dropped!\u201d RSF said.<br \/>Only Fincanci attended the hearing while Onderoglu and Nesin were abroad.<br \/>Fincanci told AFP she was \u201cvery surprised\u201d by the acquittal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISTANBUL: The Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was acquitted on Wednesday of the charge of making \u201cterror propaganda\u201d for Kurdish militants, in a case which triggered international alarm over press freedom in the country.With dozens of journalists behind bars and on trial, activists claim the climate for the media has deteriorated under President&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}