DİYARBAKIR - Detained JINNEWS Director Safiye Alağaş's colleagues, who called for her to attend her first hearing on June 15, called that "Safiye must be freed".

 

As part of the investigation carried out by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, raids were carried out on houses and media institutions in many Amed-centered cities on June 8, 2022. During the raids, 22 people, including 20 journalists, were detained. 16 out of 20 journalists were arrested on June 16. The file of JINNEWS Manager Safiye Alağaş, who was among those arrested, was separated and an indictment consisting of 383 pages was prepared.

 

In the indictment, Alağaş was charged with "being a member of a terrorist organization". Alağaş's news, news footages, news headlines and the agency's editorial policy were cited as evidence for the accusation. The indictment demanding that Alağaş be sentenced to imprisonment from 7.5 years to 15 years was accepted by the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court. The first hearing of the case will be held on June 15.

 

Alağaş's colleagues called for participation in the hearing.

 

'SAFİYE IS JUDGED FOR BEING THE VOICE OF WOMEN'

 

Stating that Kurdish women journalists disturb the government with their news and that is why they were chosen as targets, Journalist Nurcan Yalçın said: "Safiye Alağaş, one of the journalists targeted by the government, has been unlawfully imprisoned for a year and the journalists are always arrested on critical dates. They wanted to turn down the voice of the Free Press in this election. Our friend Safiye was one of them because in Turkey, there is a policy of violence against women, massacres of women, not prosecuting or punishing murderers of women. Women journalists who expose this are particularly targeted. We attribute the arrest of our friend Safiye to this. The file of our friend Safiye has been separated from the files of other imprisoned journalists. On June 15, the first hearing of our friend will be held. Safiye is on trial for being the voice of women in this country.”

 

'WE KNOW SAFİYE AS A JOURNALIST'

 

Stating that Kurdish journalists are no strangers to judicial violence, JINNEWS reporter Rojda Aydın said: “We have witnessed these attacks for years, and dozens of our female friends are in prison due to the attacks, Safiye is one of them. We have worked with Safiye Alağaş for a long time and we know Safiye as a journalist.”

 

CALL FOR SAFİYE

 

Making a call to her colleagues, Aydın said: "We expect all women journalists, especially all press organizations, to attend the hearing of Safiye Alağaş, which will be held at Diyarbakır Courthouse on June 15, against this unlawfulness."