Subscribe to The TurkEU Blog by Email

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Turkey ‘Sledgehammer’ Plot Investigators Detain OdaTV Journalists - NYTimes.com

The Turkish prosecutor in the Ergonekon investigations has ordered the detention and raid on the homes of several journalists from the OdaTV news website. It is unclear to me what reason there could be to investigate them in connection with the probe into a 2003 coup, but OdaTV has apparently been highly critical of the AKP. An AKP spokesperson says that the party has no control over the prosecutor, but this is not the first arrest of journalists critical of the AKP.

OdaTV news
Of the many things that are going well with the Turkish reform process, respecting the freedom of the press is not one. To be continued.

Turkey ‘Sledgehammer’ Plot Investigators Detain OdaTV Journalists - NYTimes.com
Posted by Paul T. Levin at 3:52 PM
Labels: , ,

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 17, 2011 at 7:26 PM

    Mr.Erdogan promised us "the advanced democracy"
    so wellcome to the advanced democracy in Turkey.
    I think Odatv is accused of being a part of so called terrorist ergenekon organization?
    Did you read what Dani rodrik and pinar dogan write about sledgehammer case?
    Anonymous Turk

    ReplyDelete
  2. Paul T. LevinFebruary 17, 2011 at 10:10 PM

    Hi Anonymous,

    Thanks for the reference - no, I hadn't really read their work although I am familiar with Pinar Dogan. Here is a link to Dani Rodrik's blog for those interested: http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2010/12/a-weird-weird-trial.html

    Among other things, I have followed Gareth Jenkins highly critical reporting of the Ergonekon trials and AKP in general at the Silk Road Institute: http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2010/12/a-weird-weird-trial.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 18, 2011 at 10:22 AM

    I didnt know gareth jenkins,thank you.The journalists of ODA tv have been imprisoned and odatv is closed.The same prosecutor and the same judges who imprisoned the others.no one expected any different results,but I didnt think this would go this far.A blogger is on trial( because he allegedly insulted prime minister in his blog.the student who makes protests against the prime minister is before a court,the procurer is demanding imprisonement.i mean this is too much.There are so many cases like that now.I have been to the UK.Yo can say whatever you want to say there.They dont put you in prison for that.anyway,
    i guess you are writing on Turkey's accession to the EU.Believe neither Turkish government nor EU want Turkey a part of EU.the turkish goverment pretends that.now the majority of turkish people are against Eu as well.The EU process has been used to make substantial changes in turkish politics and economicswell,i guess you know all these things better than me.
    Good luck
    anonymous turk

    ReplyDelete
  4. Paul T. LevinFebruary 20, 2011 at 12:01 AM

    Hi again Anonymous,

    Another post on the media wars is in the making. Look for it soon.

    Best,

    Paul

    ReplyDelete

What do you think?

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Ping your podcast