Journalism is not a crime (apart from in Turkey)

Turkey celebrated one of its most meaningful national days on May 19, Youth and Sports Day, marking the 98th anniversary of the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk headed from allied-occupied Istanbul to Samsun on the Black Sea coast in 1919. 

However, this year the day was also marked as another example of growing oppression of the independent media in Turkey with the operation staged against daily Sözcü, a critical mass-market newspaper.  

Police searched the newspaper's offices in Istanbul and İzmir as well as the house of its publisher, Burak Akbay, and issued detention warrants for him and online manager Mediha Olgun, finance manager Yonca Kaleli, and İzmir reporter Gökmen Ulu. The four were reported to be investigated over alleged links to the movement of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who is accused of masterminding the July 2016 failed coup attempt.

They were accused of "being a member of a terror organization," "committing a crime on behalf of the organization," "assaulting the president," and staging an "armed insurgency against the Turkish government."
The prosecutor's move also includes confiscation of the newspaper, according to Sözcü's lawyers, increasing concerns that the prosecution could result in shutting the newspaper down. 

The operation against Sözcü follows the arrest of Oğuz Güven, the online manager of daily Cumhuriyet, landing another heavy blow on freedom of the media in Turkey. Güven was arrested simply over the headline of a news report on the car accident that killed chief prosecutor of Denizli two weeks ago. The headline was removed from Cumhuriyet's website in less than a minute, but that did not stop the launching of a judicial move against Güven...