Thou shall let thy media free

“Is that only two articles and a news item that you have against me?” Ekrem Dumanlı, the editor-in-chief of daily Zaman asked the judge. “Yes,” answered Bekir Altun, the Istanbul 1st Criminal Court judge. “Then no one will be able to explain to the world if I am arrested on those,” Dumanlı replied, and the judge released him, while slapping a travel restriction since the court case will continue. This is how the case on Dec. 19 was reported by Zaman on the 21st.

But Hidayet Karaca, the general director of the Samanyolu TV, which belongs to the same media group in line with Fethullah Gülen, the moderate Islamist ideologue living in the U.S., was not as lucky; he was arrested by the same court to be tried in jail, together with a number of former police chiefs.

Karaca has been added to the list of journalists arrested in Turkey. It’s not just media associations in and outside Turkey but also international entities like the European Union, which Turkey wants to become a part of, denounced the arrest as a violation of press freedom in Turkey.

President Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu slammed the criticisms, saying the journalists would not be tried because of their media activities but because of their alleged involvement in a secret terrorist organization designed to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) government.

The evidence against Karaca, as far as it has been revealed so far, is an episode of a TV drama broadcasted by Samanyolu TV four years ago. In that episode, the head of an Islamist group was shown to be in cooperation with al-Qaeda and days after the broadcast, a police operation was indeed carried out against an Islamist group, called “Tahşiye” (pronouced...