Istanbul--Turkish prosecutors on Thursday launched a probe into four newspapers for disseminating "terrorist propaganda" after they published an image of a prosecutor being held by leftist militants during a hostage standoff which resulted in his death.
The Istanbul chief prosecutor's office launched the investigation into Hurriyet, Cumhuriyet, Posta and Bugun newspapers for making "terrorist propaganda for Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C)," the radical group which claimed the hostage-taking.
Mehmet Selim Kiraz and two gunmen who took him hostage were killed after a shootout at a courthouse in Istanbul. Kiraz had been investigating the politically-sensitive case of the death of a teenage boy during anti-government protests in 2013.
The DHKP-C had published pictures showing one of the militants -- his face concealed by a scarf with the group's red and yellow insignia -- holding a gun to the hostage's head at his offices in Istanbul.
The image was used by several Turkish newspapers as well as news websites, which violated the country's counter-terrorism laws, the online Radikal newspaper reported.
Dogan Media Group, Turkey's largest news company which includes Hurriyet and Posta, was forced to issue an apology in its newspapers and on its websites, saying it was "wrong to use a photo displaying the symbols of a terrorist organisation."
Turkey's television watchdog had also ordered a media blackout on reporting of the standoff, forcing Turkish television channels to cut the live transmissions of the incident.
Reporters Without Borders on Thursday condemned the media blackout and the investigation into the newspapers as the Turkish government's "first reflex in any difficulty."
"A debate within the media about journalistic ethics is justifiable but the government's arbitrary actions are helping to make it impossible," Johann Bihr, the head of RWB Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said in a statement.
In a major controversy, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu revealed he had personally denied accreditation to the funeral of Kiraz for media organisations who had used the image of the captive prosecutor.
"Freedom of the press is as important as mourning and respect. Freedom of the press is as important as not playing into the hands of terrorist propaganda," Davutoglu said.
AFP
