Özgür Gündem Newspaper Shut Down

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İstanbul 8th Court of Peace has shut down Özgür Gündem newspaper. The decision said that the newspaper will be “temporarily shut down” but did not mention how long it would remain closed.

Before notifying the newspaper, the decision to shut down Özgür Gündem was published on YeniŞafak. The decision included the following statements:

* The newspaper with the name Özgür Gündem is to be closed temporarily for reasons of regularly making PKK terrorist organization propaganda and serving as a broadcasting organ for an armed terrorist organization.

Following the closure decision, Özgür Gündem Newspaper’s editor Bayram Balcı shared the following tweet:

(The tweet reads: The AKP, who is seriously afraid of the news, has shut down our newspaper, Özgür Gündem, who writes the facts. The Facts Won’t Remain in the Dark)

Kaya: Closing alternative outlets as a State of Emergency opportunity

Özgür Gündem Gazetesi'nin kapatılmasına tepki gösteren gazetenin genel yayın yönetmeni Zana Kaya karara tepki gösterdi.

Speaking to bianet, Kaya gave the following remarks:

There still hasn’t been a notification letter. We learned about the decision from the pro-government media. It’s been a while, since war broke out in Kurdistan on July 24, 2015, that there has been pressure. There’s been one lawsuit opened after another. But after July 15 OHAL (State of Emergency) was accepted. The constitution we know has been placed on the shelf entirely. In this situation, we knew the government would come for alternative publications. We consider this opportunism. Despite this decision, whatever the price we’ll pay it, we’ll continue to defend the people’s right to news.

Özgür Gündem from 1992

A symbol of the Kurdish media and the first newspaper to publish daily in Turkish, Özgür Gündem, began its publishing life on May 30, 1992, with the headline, “Authority, without any condition and reservation, belongs to the State Security Court.” After being closed in 1994 because of judicial decisions, the newspaper was forced to operate under several different names. Özgür Gündem was able to operate under its original name again in 2011.

Murdered journalists

On June 8th, 1992, Hafız Akdemir was killed by beating while leaving his house in Diyarbakır. On July 31st, 1992, Batman reporter Yahya Orhan was killed in the middle of the street while going home, and meanwhile, before even a week had passed, on August 5th Diyarbakır reporter Burhan Karadeniz was paralysed at age 19 from an armed attack by Hizbullah of Turkey.

Four days later, reporter Hüseyin Deniz was killed in Urfa, and one member of Hizbullah was found responsible for his murder .

On July 20, the Kurdish intellectual and writer-journalist Musa Anter, known by the name Apé Musa, was killed by JİTEM (Gendarmerie Intelligence Organization).

Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel, in response to a question by the journalist Hasan Cemal in August 1992, is reported as saying, “Those who have been killed as far as we know are not journalists. They are militants posing as journalists.They’re shooting each other.”

On December 10, 1993, the newspaper’s İstanbul bureau was raided and its employees were detained. On April 14, 1994, it was closed down by court decree. In this period, it had been closed down for 335 of its 683 days of total publishing. 486 of the 580 lawsuits were opened, and many of its employees were imprisoned. One of these was the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Işık Yutçu.

The Özgür Gündem team came out with newspapers of many different names to resist the closure decrees.

From Özgür Gündem (Free Agenda) to Özgür Ülke (Free Country)

After Özgür Gündem was closed in 1994, Özgür Ülke was founded and on December 3, 1994, its three bureaus were bombed. In the Istanbul Kadırga bureau transportation coordinator Ersin Yıldız lost his life. More than 20 employees were also injured.

The statement given by Prime Minister Tansu Çiller during the time of the newspaper’s purge mandates was given widespread coverage in the press. Özgür Gündem did not stop publishing even with the attack.

The KCK press lawsuit

On December 20, 2011, the police launched raids on Özgür Gündem, all the bureaus of DİHA (Dicle News Agency), the Democratic Modernity Association, Etik Agency, and Fırat Distribution under the name of the “KCK press committee” operations. The photographs and notes of close to 50 detained press members were collected as evidence. The last journalists were released on May 12, 2014, after spending about 2.5 years in prison. 46 journalists’ trailed cases still continue.

Özgür Gündem’s website has had its access blocked twice. (EA/KT)