ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish police in the Kurdish province of Diyarbakir (Amed) raided the offices of a number of Kurdish news outlets and journalists on Wednesday, detaining over 20 of them for unclear reasons.
Jin News and Medya Haber said on Wednesday that their offices in Diyarbakir were raided by police in the early hours of the day, with the former one reporting the detention of its manager Safiye Alagas and editor Gulsen Kocuk.
A total of 21 Kurdish journalists have been detained during the raids on both media outlets and the houses of journalists, including Serdar Altan, co-chair of Dicle Firat Journalists Foundation (DFG), according to Jin News.
“The phones and some digital materials of the journalists detained during the raid were confiscated,” said Jin News.
Medya Haber said in a statement that the raids followed reports by media outlets in Turkey and the Kurdistan Region allegedly claiming that its journalists are affiliated to the PKK-owned Sterk TV.
Dersim Dag, lawmaker for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) who represents Amed, slammed the raids, claiming that the government is “trying to slice the rise of voices which are against the policy of war by attacking the journalists. These are efforts to prolong the age of the government.”
It is not clear why the Kurdish news outlets were raided and the journalists were detained. However, most of the raids in the past have been related to the PKK-related charges.
PKK is an armed group fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. However, it is designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara.
Botan International, a Kurdish media watchdog which partners with Reporters Without Borders (RSF), also slammed the raids, saying their studio, interview room and newsroom are open for the raided news outlets to continue their work there.
RSF placed Turkey 153th out of 180 countries on its Press Freedom Index for 2021.
