The Economist: Turkey -a dangerous place to be a journalist

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey is a dangerous place to be a journalist, an article published in The Economist said.

“Turkey’s mildly Islamist prime minister, likes to boast that his Justice and Development (AK) party has transformed the country into a “forward democracy”. But the detention and imprisonment of two investigative journalists on March 6th looks very much like a step backwards.

The arrests of Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener came at a time of growing concern about pressure on the media. Scores of journalists, many of them Kurds, are in jail. The European Union and America say they are worried. Thousands of Turks took to the streets in protest after the arrests.

Mr Sik and Mr Sener have been accused of involvement with the so-called Ergenekon gang, an organisation of generals and like-minded accomplices alleged to have plotted to overthrow AK. The investigation into Ergenekon, which began in 2007, marks the first time that serving generals have been called to account by civilians (albeit in controversial special security courts), and has offered an unprecedented glimpse into the army’s murky past.

Yet even AK’s biggest fans worry that the legitimacy of the Ergenekon case is being dented by heavy-handed tactics such as the arrests of Mr Sik and Mr Sener. Four years after the investigation began there have still been no convictions. Some suspects have yet to be charged. The investigation, say some, has become a mere pretext to round up the government’s critics,” the article said.