Two Journalists: Unemployed and Investigated

Public prosecutor's office launches two more investigations into weekly Nokta magazine, which had been recently closed as a result of pressure following articles critical of the army.

Former reporters of the magazine, Ahmet Şık and Banu Uzpeder are subjected to the investigations with regard to two different interviews.

If decided, they will be tried with articles 301 and 318 of the Turkish Penal Code, which denote crimes of "publicly insulting the military and security forces of the state" and "discouraging people from military service", respectively.

Courts' sensitive to security forces

In the first incident Şık and Uzpeder have interviewed a women who survived the security forces' intervention -ironically dubbed as "Return to Life" by the authorities- to prisons around the country, which left 32 dead.

The article had featured on December 21-27, 2006 issue of the magazine.

Two journalists remarked in their testimony that the quoted information have already been public and later reports by experts proved security forces' shortcomings and violations during the intervention. As a result, expression of such wouldn't constitute a crime, they contended.

The second investigation had been launched with regard to Şık's interview with writer and security expert Lale Sarıibrahimoğlu.

Both Şık and Sarıibrahimoğlu are accused of "discouraging people from military service" through two articles titled "What Does Police-Gendarmerie Conflict Reveal?" and "Military Should Withdraw from Internal Security".

If investigations turn into trials and get convicted, all face prison sentences.(EÖ/EÜ)