DİYARBAKIR – Protesting the arrest of 16 out of 20 journalists in front of the courthouse, their colleagues called for participation to the press release to be held today and said: "You will not succeed eradicating us."

 

As part of the investigation conducted by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, 16 journalists were arrested from 22 people detained on June 8. JINNEWS Manager Safiye Alagaş, DFG Co-chair Serdar Altan, MA Editor Aziz Oruç, Xwebûn Editor-in-Chief Mehmet Ali Ertaş, Zeynel Abidin Bulut, Ömer Çelik, Mazlum Doğan Güler, İbrahim Koyuncu, Neşe Toprak, Elif Üngür, Abdurrahman Öncü, Suat Doğuhan, Remziye Temel, Ramazan Geciken, Lezgin Akdeniz and Mehmet Şahin who were referred to the Magistrate 's Court on Duty were arrested and sent to Diyarbakır Prison. The decision was protested by the colleagues and families of the journalists.

 

'YOU WILL NOT SUCCEED'  

 

DFG Co-chair Dicle Müftüoğlu stated that they are facing injustice once again. Underlining that the journalists were arrested for their journalistic activities, Müftüoğlu said: "You have not succeeded with all the methods you have tried since the 90s. You will not succeed to eradicate us with these operations. You will not succeed in depriving our colleagues of their freedom with copy-pasted decisions. As we do not accept this decision, we will continue the protests until our friends are released."

 

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE DEMO TODAY

 

Müftüoğlu stated that they will protest the decision in front of the DFG at 13.00 today and made the following call: "We invite everyone who supports freedom of press and expression to action".

 

The statement ended with the slogans "The free press cannot be silenced".