Journalists March to Court for Cumhuriyet Daily Trial

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Gathering in front of the office building of Cumhuriyet Newspaper in Şişli district of İstanbul upon call of Journalists Union of Turkey, a group of journalists, rights defenders and representatives of trade bodies have marched to İstanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan for the first hearing in the Cumhuriyet daily trial which began at 10 a.m. this morning (July 24).

A banner with the slogan "You are not alone, we are not alone" and photographs of the arrested journalists is hanging on the office building of the newspaper.

The street where the building is located has been closed to traffic by police.                   

The journalists gathering in front of the building have chanted slogans of "Don't remain silent, shout out, obtainment of information is a right", "Free press cannot be silenced", "Journalists will be released and they will write again" and "Journalism is not a crime". The names of the arrested journalists were read out.

The first hearing in the trial in which in which one Twitter user under arrest and 18 executives, journalists and employees from Cumhuriyet daily 11 of whom are also arrested are standing trial will be held today in front of the İstanbul Çağlayan Courthouse 27th High Criminal Court.

19 people, 12 of whom are arrested, are standing trial on charge of "being a member of an armed terrorist organization" and "aiding an armed terrorist organization as a non-member". (TP/BK)