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[ElTorro]

http://www.dw.com/en/turkey-jails-j...ie-hebdo-prophet-mohammed-cartoons/a-19223050

A court has sentenced Hikmet Cetinkaya and Ceyda Karan to two years in jail for republishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed from the French monthly Charlie Hebdo. The verdict has raised questions about press freedom.

The anti-government Cumhuriyet daily, which employed both journalists, reported that the initiators of the lawsuit chanted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is greatest," after the verdict was read out.

The controversial graphic showed an image of the prophet shedding a tear and holding a sign saying "Je suis Charlie." The slogan became a symbol of protest against terror attacks after self-declared "Islamic State" (IS) militants gunned down several employees of the French satire magazine in Paris in January 2015.

Around a week after the killings, the two Turkish reporters, Cetinkaya and Karan, decided to publish a four-page Charlie Hebdo feature to mark the magazine's first edition after the attacks. The weeping prophet's picture was included twice in the pullout to illustrate columns by the two journalists.

Any visual representation of the prophet is considered blasphemy in Islam and Cumhuriyet received many threats after the edition was published. Prime Minister Davutoglu criticized the daily, describing the act as an "open provocation."

Cetinkaya and Karan were subsequently put on trial on charges of "inciting public hatred" and "insulting religious values."

Concern has been growing about the treatment of reporters under President Erdogan. Trials for insulting the president have been on the rise since he assumed his position in 2014. There are 20,000 such cases currently open.

This is insane. Turkey is slowly becoming a theocracy.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

http://www.dw.com/en/turkey-jails-j...ie-hebdo-prophet-mohammed-cartoons/a-19223050

This is insane. Turkey is slowly becoming a theocracy.

Slowly? The secularism in their Constitution has always been only de jure and not also de facto.

 

[PillarEN]

Man that is incredibly sad.

Stay strong Turkey-GAF. You don't deserve to have your freedom of speech impeded like this. Nobody does.

 

[ElTorro]

Slowly? The secularism in their Constitution has always been only de jure and not also de facto.

I was aware that certain publications (like books about atheism) had been subject to censorship. But when journalists are being thrown into prison merely for posting that cover, things seem to have gone to a new level. These crazy case numbers for insults against the president support this impression.

I also don't think it's a coincidence that these journalists are working for newspaper that is critical of the government.

 

[LiquidSword]

Turkey wants to be part of the EU without a free press. Lol

 

[ElTorro]

Turkey wants to be part of the EU without a free press. Lol

The idea of a Turkish EU membership is a joke at this point. The EU has always asked for more progress not for a regress.

 

[cameron]

Cetinkaya and Karan were subsequently put on trial on charges of "inciting public hatred" and "insulting religious values."

Ridiculous. And 2 years imprisonment for this nonsense.


Turkey is at the bottom of the barrel in the World Press Freedom Index.

https://rsf.org/en/turkey

 

[dan2026]

I love how religious freedom is apparantly more important than freedom of speech.

What a messed up standard to set.

 

[Reverend Funk]

I love how religious freedom is apparantly more important than freedom of speech.

What a messed up standard to set.

This isnt religious freedom

 

[Moonkid]

I'm not a fan of their cartoons but this really doesn't do anyone any good and it seems the government as a whole are curbing down on anything they're not a fan of. Pretty ridiculous.