Turkey rebukes Council of Europe on Dündar, Gül imprisonment

Prominent journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül have not been imprisoned because of their press activities but for "aiding terrorist organizations," Ankara has said in a retort to the Council of Europe.

"The scope of the investigation [against daily Cumhuriyet's Dündar and Gül] is not related to the freedom of media, which is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution in Turkey," read the letter penned by the Justice Ministry and handed to the Council of Europe by Turkey's Permanent Representation on Dec. 3. 

"The utmost care is being shown so that the rights and freedoms of the suspects are protected as stipulated by the relevant laws, which are in accordance with international norms. Moreover, effective legal remedies to which the suspects may resort exist in domestic law," it added. 

Cumhuriyet's editor-in-chief, Dündar, and the paper's Ankara bureau chief, Gül, were imprisoned on Nov. 26 on charges of aiding an armed terrorist organization and political or military espionage over their articles in May, June and October on the interception of trucks belonging to the National Intelligence Organization (M?T). The articles suggested that the trucks intercepted in January 2014 were allegedly shipping weapons to opposition groups fighting against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.

The imprisonment of the two prominent journalists created an outcry inside and outside Turkey, with leading international press organizations submitting an alert on the state of freedom of media in Turkey to the Council of Europe on Nov 26. 

The alert was submitted by Reporters without Borders (RSF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Association of European Journalists (AEJ...