Twenty-seven human rights and journalism groups have released a joint statement demanding the release of journalist Sedef Kabaş, who was arrested on January 22 for allegedly “insulting the president.”
Twenty-seven human rights and journalism groups have released a joint statement demanding the release of journalist Sedef Kabaş, who was arrested on January 22 for allegedly “insulting the president.”
Kabaş should be released immediately and judicial harassment of the independent media should end, the groups said.
They listed three demands:
The release of Kabaş and all arrested journalists,
An effective investigation into the death threats against journalist Alican Uludağ,
Withdrawal of the fines imposed on TELE1 TV by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) because of Kabaş’s remarks.
The following groups signed the statement: International Press Institute (IPI), Association of European Journalists (AEJ), Articolo 21, Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI), Gazetecileri Koruma Komitesi Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Danish PEN, English PEN, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Freedom House, German PEN, Index on Censorship, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT), PEN America, PEN Centre of Bosnia-Herzegovina, PEN International, PEN Iraq, PEN Melbourne, PEN Norway, PEN Turkey, PEN Québec, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), San Miguel PEN, South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), Swedish PEN, World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA)
What happened?
Kabaş appears frequently on political talk shows at Turkey’s remaining opposition television stations and is well-known as a former television host. She currently runs Sedef Kabaş TV, a YouTube channel, with 87,000 followers, in which she discusses politics with her guests. Kabaş also has over 899,000 followers on Twitter.
Kabaş was arrested on January 22nd for “insulting the president” because of her words during a live broadcast a week ago.
“There is a famous saying, ‘A crowned head will get wiser.’ But we see that this isn’t the reality. There is also a saying that is the exact opposite: ‘When the cattle climbs to the palace, he doe not become a king, but the palace becomes a barn’,” Kabaş said during a program on TELE1 TV on January 14.
A week later, she posted the second quote on her Twitter and Instagram accounts as a “Circassian proverb,” replacing the word “cattle” with “ox.” Shortly after, at around 2 a.m. on Saturday, she was detained during a police raid. Hours later, a penal judgeship of peace remanded her in custody.
Kabaş is being held at a prison in Istanbul since 19 days. (as of February 11)
Kabaş’s lawyer Uğur Poyraz appealed against her arrest on the grounds that it was against the European Convention on Human Rights, the legal precedents of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Constitution on procedural grounds and as to the merits.
Poyraz requested that Sedef Kabaş be released on probation. Rejecting the appeal against Kabaş’s arrest, the İstanbul 58th Criminal Court of First Instance has referred to “the strong suspicion that the offense was committed publicly in its aggravated form and the fact that the suspect was put on trial before on a similar charge.”