Media freedom in Turkey

An Istanbul court ordered the release of veteran journalist Kadri Gürsel on Sept. 25 in the third hearing of the case into critical Turkish daily Cumhuriyet. 

While ruling for the release of Gürsel, the Istanbul 27th Heavy Penal Court ruled for the continued arrest of four others including reporter Ahmet Şık and editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu.

Turkish novelist Aslı Erdoğan received Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize in the German city of Osnabrück on Sept. 22.  

Erdoğan, who spent 132 days in jail after being arrested last summer, gave a speech before the ceremony, expressing her happiness at being in Germany for the ceremony but highlighting that "180 writers in Turkey are still in jail and unable to go abroad."  

The arrest of journalists is quite a big problem in democratic societies since it is a violation against society's right to demand news. Therefore, our country is viewed by the international community as quite troubled.

So, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) accepted applications from journalists and asked for a defense from the Justice Ministry.

The sixth hearing of the trial of 20 executives and journalists from the daily Cumhuriyet, including the daily's Editor-in-Chief Murat Sabuncu, journalists Ahmet Şık and Kadri Gürsel and cartoonist Musa Kart, continued on Sept.

Turkish authorities have returned novelist Aslı Erdoğan's passport and she is expected to travel to Europe soon, more than two months after her travel ban was lifted, her lawyer said on Sept. 8.

Erdoğan, one of the country's leading contemporary novelists, was given her passport on Sept. 7, her lawyer Erdal Doğan told AFP.

Aslı Erdoğan, a prominent Turkish novelist, has said she is upset about being unable to travel to Germany to receive a peace prize since her passport, which was previously seized amid her trial on terror charges, has not yet been returned.

One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, Aslı Erdoğan, will not be able to accept a peace prize in Germany because her passport, previously seized amid her trial on terror charges, has not yet been returned. 

She was to accept the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize in person in the German city of Osnabrück on Sept. 22, but now someone else will receive the award on her behalf. 

The Turkish publisher Turhan Günay of Cumhuriyet Books and the Turkish publishing house Evrensel have been named co-winners of the Geneva-based International Publishers Association's (IPA) 2017 Prix Voltaire prize on Aug. 3.

Former President Abdullah Gül recently said that journalists who are being tried should not be imprisoned. He said this in response to a question about the case against daily Cumhuriyet journalists, which was seen last week and which has attracted international attention and condemnation. 

The Cumhuriyet case once again showed that the trial of journalists and writers in Turkey must come to an end in order to avoid more injustice at home and disgrace in the world.