Turkish court bans media publications on Ankara bombings

PanARMENIAN.Net - An Ankara court issued Wednesday, October 14, a broad media ban over the October 10 Ankara suicide bomber investigation, Hurriyet Daily news reports.

According to the court decision, the ban includes “all kinds of news, interviews, criticism and similar publications in print, visual, social media and all kinds of media on the Internet.”

All media outlets in the country have officially been notified of the decision, which brings in one of the broadest recent media bans and is effective immediately.

In addition, on October 12, a restriction decision was given out concerning the bombing investigation over the prosecutor’s demand. According to the decision, lawyers will not be able to take information and documents from the file with some exceptions. The same decision had been made over both the Suruc and Diyarbakir bomb attacks earlier this year.

Speaking to Reuters on October 14, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said some of the suspects in a suicide bombing that killed at least 97 people in Ankara had spent months in Syria and could be linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“We are working on [investigating] two terrorist organizations, Daesh [ISIL] and the PKK, because we have certain evidence suggesting the suicide bombers are linked to Daesh, or maybe PKK groups,” Davutoglu said.

The bombings targeting a peace rally in the capital city of Ankara left at least 97 dead and wounded hundreds, marking one of the deadliest attacks in the country’s history.

From 2010 to 2014, Turkish media faced over 150 gag orders, Hürriyet daily reported last year. The subjects of the bans have included deadly attacks, corruption cases, the wiretapping of officials, a mining disaster and even football match-fixing claims.