Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) announced its legal report for 2024. The report, which includes data on the legal support provided to journalists throughout the year, said, “In 2024, we journalists tried to defend journalism in the corridors of the courts on one hand while doing our job on the other. Journalists have been the first to be targeted by the increasing pressure and censorship by the government in Turkey. While attempts were made to prevent the public's freedom of information through the repression of journalists, hundreds of journalists have been investigated, and these investigations have turned into lawsuits.”

The report pointed out that the DFG legal unit, lawyers Resul Tamur and Özcan Kılıç followed the lawsuit processes of dozens of journalists. Accordingly, the legal proceedings of 74 journalists in and around Amed (Diyarbakır) were followed by lawyer Resul Tamur and those of 72 other journalists were followed by Özcan Kılıç.

The DFG report said: “In 2024, we provided legal support to 152 colleagues who faced investigations, lawsuits and criminal complaints. In the 49 cases we attended, we defended journalism and explained that journalism is not a crime. In addition, our lawyers accompanied our colleagues during their testimonies at law enforcement agencies during the year.

While 6 of the cases we followed resulted in acquittal, the other cases are still pending. At the same time, we defended the rights of 10 of our colleagues at the Court of Appeal, Court of Cassation and Constitutional Court. We filed objections against the restriction of access to the accounts of many institutions and colleagues, and the news reports shared on our association's website. We took the closure of establishments such as the Free Journalists Association and Cihan Radio through Decree Law to higher courts. We objected to 16 access bans. Although most of our objections were rejected, we continued our legal struggle at the higher court and we continue to do so.

Many of our colleagues were subjected to violence and threats while making news. In this regard, we filed criminal complaints in defence of two journalists who were subjected to violence during the ‘Freedom Rally’ in Amed, three journalists who were subjected to violence while covering the peace vigil of the Peace Mothers in Silopi district of Şırnak, and 31 colleagues who were subjected to violence in Istanbul and Van. We also filed criminal complaints with the Human Rights Association and the Association of Lawyers for Freedoms against the attacks on our colleagues covering the protests that started after the appointment of a trustee to the municipality of Batman.

While preparing this report, we learned with great sadness about the killing of our colleagues Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin in a combat drone attack. We say once again that we will hold this attack to account at the highest legal level. Eyewitnesses and the documents we have obtained show that the attack deliberately targeted journalists. On this basis, we will continue our legal struggle on every ground to prove that this is a war crime.

We did not only defend journalism in the corridors of courthouses and police stations. We organized various workshops in order to further expand the defense of journalism. In this context, in our workshop on crisis reporting, which we organized twice with the participation of our lawyer Resul Tamur, we informed about 30 colleagues on what to do with regard to investigations against journalists. In 2024, we defended journalism both through legal struggle and by increasing solidarity with other professional groups. We will continue to defend journalism in 2025 as well. We will neither stop writing the truth nor stop saying that journalism is not a crime.”