Turkey Issues Arrest Warrants For 42 Journalists: Local Media
MEP: Turkish authorities have issued arrest warrants for 42 journalists on Monday as part of the investigation into the failed military coup aimed at tumbling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, private broadcaster NTV reported.
Prominent commentator and former parliamentarian Nazli Ilicak was among those for whom a warrant was issued, NTV and CNN-Turk reported. Ilicak was fired from the pro-government Sabah daily in 2013 for criticizing ministers caught up in a corruption scandal.
There was no indication any of the journalists had been detained so far.
Turkish authorities have suspended, detained or placed under investigation more than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, teachers, civil servants and others in the week since a failed coup attempt.
The measures Ankara has resorted to in the wake of the spoiled coup have raised domestic and international concern. Government officials have said they would reinstate the death penalty, which was annulled in Turkey in 2004 under reforms aimed at joining the European Union (EU).
The government blamed the 2013 corruption scandal on the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it also accuses of being behind the botched coup on July 15.
The Hurriyet daily said that the warrants – the first to target several members of the press in the crackdown over the coup bid – were issued by the office of Istanbul anti-terror prosecutor Irfan Fidan
