This week several journalism and freedom of expression trials will resume at courts. Below is a list of this week’s hearings:
7 May Tuesday
- Fourth hearing of the trial where journalist Uğur Yılmaz, who is represented by MLSA, faces “membership in a terrorist organization” and “terrorist propaganda” charges for his journalistic activities will resume at Bitlis 2nd High Criminal Court. Yılmaz is tried whilst in detention and has been detained for almost two years now.
- Fourth hearing of the trial where journalist Kibriye Evren faces “membership in a terrorist organization” and “terrorist propaganda” charges for her occupational activities and social media posts will resume at Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court. Evren is tried whilst in detention and has been detained since October 2018.
- Fifth hearing of the trial where photojournalist Çağdaş Erdoğan faces “membership in a terrorist organization” and “making terrorist propaganda” charges will take place at İstanbul 33rd High Criminal Court.
- Third hearing of the trial where former Evrensel daily reporter Cansu Pişkin faces “targeting those who participated in anti-terror operations” charges will take place at İstanbul 36th High Criminal Court. Pişkin faces these charges for a news story published on 5 April 2018 titled “A special prosecutor for Boğaziçi students.”
- Third hearing of the trial where journalist Hasan Cemal faces “terrorist propaganda” charges will resume at İstanbul 36th High Criminal Court. Cemal faces this allegation for a column he wrote on 4 December 2015 titled, “From Silvan: They’ve accustomed us to sorrow and death…”
8 May Wednesday
- Third hearing of the trial where seven journalists from since-shuttered DİHA and Özgür Gündem (Ömer Çelik, A. Vahap Taş, Çağdaş Kaplan, Selman Çiçek, Hamza Gündüz, İnan Kızılkaya and Kemal Sancılı) face “identifying those who participated in anti-terror operations as a target” for sharing a news report about a gendarmerie general overseeing the Sur district of Diyarbakır province between 2015 - 2016 on their social media accounts will resume at Diyarbakır 9th High Criminal Court.
- Fourth hearing of the trial where journalist and former Milliyet columnist Mehmet Gündem is tried whilst in detention with “membership in a terrorist organization charges” will take place at İstanbul 35th High Criminal Court.
- Thirteenth hearing of the trial where since shut-down Özgür Gündem daily’s administrators and staff (Eren Keskin, Hüseyin Aykol, Reyhan Çapan, Filiz Koçali, Ayşe Berktay, Nuray Özdoğan, Celalettin Can, Ayşe Batumlu, Reyhan Hacıoğlu) face “making terrorist propaganda” charges will take place at İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court.
9 May Thursday
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Fourteenth hearing of the “KCK Press Trial” where 46 journalists face terror-related charges will be held at İstanbul 3rd High Criminal Court. The trial has been dragging for seven years now.
