Turkey: CFWIJ Welcomes Journalist Beritan Canözer’s Release
Location: Turkey, Diyarbakir
Date: April 8, 2021Available in: 🇹🇷 Türkçe
Jin News reporter Beritan Canözer was released after four-day detention. The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) welcomes the journalist’s release. We urge the Turkish authorities to end state oppression against the journalists. We reiterate once again that journalism is not a crime.
After four-day detention, journalist Beritan Canözer was called to the court without prior notice and the prosecutor requested her arrest. Due to the confidential investigation, no further information given to her relatives and lawyers. However, after appearing in court, Beritan was released conditionally. However, her phone, digital materials and books seized by the police during the raid, are still not returned.
Yesterday, we reported about her inhumane conditions during her detention. 22 women including Beritan were threatened and mistreated. Beritan and 21 women, who were taken to custody on April 5th, were threatened by the police. Reportedly, one of the detainees wanted to leave the door open, where they were kept, due to a health problem. However, police kept it closed and threatened women saying, "If you even try knocking on the door, I will teach you humanity.”
Among the information, there were sound and video recording cameras placed in the corridor where 22 women were kept, and claiming police will be subject to criminal proceedings based on this. Also, women did not accept the meals given after the police threat. Detainees including Beritan also faced major problems of basic needs.
Beritan, who is consistently targeted by the Turkish state, is a journalist based in southeast Turkey. She was legally persecuted many times nearly over the last decade.
On June 28, 2019, Beritan was detained due to covering a protest in 2015. She was first jailed five months after the accusation that she was a member of a terror organization and was acting under the instructions of senior executives of the organization on December 19, 2015. The second hearing of the case took place on June 26, 2019, in Diyarbakır. The prosecutor asked that she be sentenced to seven-and-a-half to fifteen years in prison. The decision was postponed to October 2019. However, she was acquitted later by the court.
In 2020, another lawsuit was filed against Beritan about her social media posts. The prosecution requested a prison sentence against Beritan for “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization” on social media. In the third hearing of the case against her, the court ruled one year, ten months and 15 days sentence in prison.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism welcomes Beritan’s release. However, we are aware of the rising intimidation carried out in Turkey in recent years. We keep a close watch on these inequitable interventions with great concern. Legal harassment of journalists through the weaponization of the law should no longer be used by the Turkish authorities. We demand the legal persecution against journalist Beritan Canözer come to an immediate end.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism closely monitors the incidents in Turkey with great concern. Since March 8, Women's Day, police violence against women journalists increasingly continues in the country. As the coalition, we urge the Turkish state to provide a free environment for journalists. Following the news is our most fundamental democratic right to report. We demand the immediate release of our detained colleagues. Journalism is not a crime. Journalism cannot be prevented.
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