Court issues total media ban over Ankara suicide bombings

ANKARA

An Ankara court issued on Oct. 14 a broad media ban over the Oct. 10 Ankara suicide bomber investigation.

According to the court decision, the ban includes “all kinds of news, interviews, criticism and similar publications in print, visual, social media and all kinds of media on the Internet” covered by the investigation.

All media outlets in the country have officially been notified of the decision, which brings in one of the broadest recent media bans and is effective immediately.

In addition, on Oct. 12, a restriction decision was given about the bombing investigation over the prosecutor’s demand. According to the decision, lawyers will not be able to take information and documents from the file with some exceptions. The same decision had been made over both the Suruç and Diyarbakır bomb attacks earlier this year.

Speaking to Reuters on Oct. 14, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said some of the suspects in a suicide bombing that killed at least 97 people in Ankara had spent months in Syria and that they could be linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“We are working on [investigating] two terrorist organizations, Daesh [ISIL] and the PKK, because we have certain evidence regarding the suicide bombers having links with Daesh, but also some linkages with PKK groups,” Davutoğlu said.

The Oct. 10 bombing targeting a peace rally in the capital city of Ankara left at least 97 dead and wounded hundreds, marking one of the deadliest attacks in the country’s history.

From 2010 to 2014, Turkish media faced over 150 gag orders, Hürriyet daily reported last year. The subjects of the bans have included deadly attacks, corruption cases, the wiretapping of officials, a mining disaster and even football match-fixing claims.