CHP calls on AKP to back bill to prevent journalists’ arrest

ANKARA – Doğan News Agency

AA Photo

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has called on Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to support a recent bill proposed by his party to ensure trials without arrest for journalists facing press-related charges. 

“I’m calling on Davutoğlu to propose either a unilateral or bilateral bill for the trial of journalists without arrest on press-related charges,” said Kılıçdaroğlu.

“Two of our journalist friends [daily Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül] are now in jail in Silivri for reporting on MİT trucks,” he said during his party’s group meeting in parliament on Dec. 8, calling on the Turkish premier to help pass a recent bill proposed by the CHP on Dec. 7.

The journalists detailed how the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) was allegedly transporting weapons to Syria after trucks belonging to the agency were stopped early last year. The story sparked a furious reaction from all around the country when the story surfaced.

The bill, drafted by CHP deputy chair Sezgin Tanrıkulu, outlined amendments to the Turkish Press Law that propose the prosecution of journalists without arrest in cases investigating printed work and other crimes covered by the Turkish Press Law.  

“Let’s enact a law together so that no journalists are arrested,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, criticizing the deteriorating situation for journalists in Turkey.

Commenting on the imprisonment of Dündar and Gül in Istanbul’s Silivri Prison over the coverage of the story of the MİT trucks, Kılıçdaroğlu said the report was sound and that Dündar and Gül had been forced into exile.