What is freedom good for?

In Turkey, freedom of thought should be explained for its practical benefits rather than for its high philosophical values, because in our society the political tradition that regards "thought" as a "tool" rather than an individual value is very strong. 

Whoever is in power typically wants obedience rather than thought. In the past, the Kemalist government of the single-party era banned the magazine "Kadro" and the newspaper "Akın," which featured leftist or liberal interpretations of Kemalism.  

Unfortunately the same tendency to ban remains dominant today, despite the fact that the horizons of freedom have grown unusually wide over the past three quarters of a century. 

It is not possible to understand the arrest of journalists from dailies Cumhuriyet and Sözcü, or the fact that they have been in jail for months. I have worked alongside some of those arrested, such as Kadri Gürsel and Murat Sabuncu. 

Other colleagues were professional writers and simply expressed their opinion in media outlets of the Gülen movement, back when they were legal. Several government spokespeople were also frequently seen in these publications. Names such as Ahmet and Mehmet Altan, Nazlı Ilıcak, Şahin Alpay, Ali Bulaç and Mümtazer Türköne are today in prison. 

Because they expressed oppositional opinions in their articles, prosecutors have attributed to them the "intention" of preparing the groundwork for the coup attempt or assisting the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).

Hürriyet columnist Sedat Ergin has written about the concept "read the mind, arrest the journalist." In the future, when the history of this era is written, that would be a good name for this period.  

Could it be possible to demand life sentences...