Three journalists in Turkey face death threats; CPJ demands action

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published last month |  CPJ News Alert

The Committee to Protect Journalists has urged Turkey to ensure the safety of Rabia Önver, Şule Aydın, and Murat Ağırel, who have received serious threats linked to their reporting.

Summary

ISTANBUL—The authorities in Turkey should ensure the security of journalists Rabia Önver, Şule Aydın, and Murat Ağırel, each of whom has received threats recently due to their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. 

“The threats targeting journalists Rabia Önver, Şule Aydın, and Murat Ağırel are worrying, especially at a time when physical attacks on journalists are on the rise in Turkey,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should take all measures necessary to provide security for the threatened journalists in order to help all journalists in Turkey feel safer.”

Önver, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish news website JİN News, in the southeastern province of Hakkari, said she has been receiving death threats regarding her reporting on the activities of the fundamentalist militant groups Islamic State and Hezbollah in southeastern Turkey. Önver told CPJ that she had received many online death threats due to reports she published on September 23 and October 13. Önver’s lawyer is preparing to file criminal complaints against the people who made the threats. 

Aydın, a host for the pro-opposition YouTube channel Onlar TV, said in a broadcast last week that Timur Soykan, another Onlar TV host and a columnist for the daily BirGün, had received a warning about plans of a physical attack on herself and her fellow host and daily Cumhuriyet columnist Murat Ağırel. Triggermen on motorcycles would attack Aydın and Ağırel in Istanbul, according to an anonymous message sent to Soykan via messaging app from a foreign phone number. Hüseyin Ersöz, a lawyer for the journalists, said in a social media post last week that his clients had offered testimony describing the threats to the authorities, and asked for “an effective investigation” and for deterrent protective measures to be taken. 

Three journalists have been hurt, killed, or otherwise attacked in Turkey in the past three weeks. CPJ is investigating whether these attacks were related to the journalists’ work. 

CPJ sent emails requesting comment from the chief prosecutor’s offices in Hakkari and Istanbul, but did not receive a reply.