Successive reactions from CHP to the operation against journalists

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office announced that proceedings have been initiated against journalists Şaban Sevinç, Yavuz Oğhan, Batuhan Çolak, Soner Yalçın, Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, and Ruşen Çakır on charges of "publicly disseminating misleading information" and "aiding a criminal organization" as part of an operation conducted over "corruption" allegations regarding the IBB. 

Successive reactions came from the CHP regarding the dawn operation against the journalists.

CHP Deputy Chairman Burhanettin Bulut:

"Journalists Yavuz Oğhan, Şaban Sevinç, and Batuhan Çolak were taken to the police station to give their statements under police escort in an operation carried out in the early hours of the morning. If there is no detention, what are the police doing at their homes at the crack of dawn? Why were their phones confiscated? Could the journalists not have been invited to the police station? This 'de facto detention' is a clear intimidation tactic aimed at suppressing and silencing the entire opposition and the free press. This systematic pressure on the press in Turkey has now turned into a witch hunt."

CHP Şanlıurfa MP Mahmut Tanal:

"It is not journalists who should be tried, but those who hide the truth. The detention of CHP Communications Coordinator Yavuz Oğhan and journalist Şaban Sevinç is the latest link in the chain of pressure on the press. Journalism is not a crime. Freedom of expression is not a crime. These detentions serve not justice, but authoritarianism."

CHP Deputy Chairman Ulaş Karasu:

“Journalists Yavuz Oğhan, Şaban Sevinç, and Batuhan Çolak were taken to the police station to give their statements under police escort, once again in a dawn operation. No matter what you do, you cannot escape the truth. You will not be able to build a wall between the public and the facts. You cannot silence the truth.”