Şahin Alpay

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on March 20 ruled that the right to liberty and the right freedom of expression of Turkish journalists Şahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan have been violated. 

Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled on March 16 for a second time that the rights of arrested writer Şahin Alpay have been violated.  

The Constitutional Court on Feb. 2 rejected the release demand of two Turkish journalists, Şahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan, despite earlier ruling that the rights of imprisoned journalists had been violated, daily Cumhuriyet reported on Feb. 4.

Organization for Security and co-Operation in Europe(OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir sent a letter to Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Jan 17 for the release of two arrested journalists, Şahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan, over the Constitutional Court’s decision that was not implemented by a lower court.

The Constitutional Court’s ruling that the jailing of journalists Şahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan during the trial violates their constitutional rights “is not the final decision,” Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said.

The Constitutional Court ordered on Jan. 11 to release jailed journalists Mehmet Altan and Şahin Alpay, ruling that their detention constituted a rights violation.

Reading the accusations in the indictment, listening to the defense of the suspect and evaluating all the evidence is fundamental when trying to express an objective opinion about a legal case that is continuing.

The 26th Istanbul Criminal Court on Sept. 19 rejected demands to release a group of journalists and writers who have been in jail for more than a year, in a case into the "media leg" of the Gülen network.

Reading the accusations in the indictment, listening to the defense of the suspect and evaluating all the evidence is fundamental when trying to express an objective opinion about a legal case that is continuing.

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.