Turkey: Hülya Kilinç Still Behind Bars For Doing Her Job
Location: Turkey, Istanbul
Date: June 25, 2020Available in: 🇹🇷 Türkçe
The Coalition For Women In Journalism has been following the first hearing of the case against ODATV journalist Hülya Kılınç and her colleagues. Kılınç has spent the last 110 days in solitary confinement.
Kılınç, who is being accused of “disclosing confidential state information” for reporting the funeral of a National Intelligence Agency official, gave her first defense statement today.
Read the previous report about Kılınç’s imprisonment here
Odatv reporter Hülya Kılınç said that she faced such an accusation for the first time in her 20-year career of journalism.
"In the report I prepared, I didn't expose the identity, family, and duty of the martyr and other MİT personnel. I used a very attentive and careful style in the report. If I had revelation purposes, I would no doubt prepare a very different report and use very different sentences.
I repeat; the purpose of the report is that our martyr was buried in Manisa and the official ceremony that our martyr deserved was not held. I didn't do any criminal activity. I had no intent and purpose to commit a crime."
Apart from being a journalist, I am a mother, a woman with a 17-year-old boy, and in every martyr news, I feel the pain of mothers who lost their children in my heart like every mother. When I heard that we had martyrs in Libya, I felt the same pain as a mother.” said Kılınç during her defense statement.
The court decided to continue the trial of Hülya Kılınç under imprisonment while releasing Barış Terkoğlu of ODATV and Ferhat Çelik and Aydın Keser of Yeni Yaşam on the condition of judicial control.
The next hearing will be held on September 9th 2020.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism urges the Turkish government to stop putting journalists behind bars and the de facto pre-trial detention of journalists that are being ruled in the absence of their lawyers which is a breach of the rule of law.
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The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world, and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.
Follow us on Instagram @womeninjournalism and Twitter @CFWIJ. Our website is WomenInJournalism.org and we can be reached at press@womeninjournalism.org
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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