The hearings of the lawsuits filed against journalists and activists who protested the Turkish state's killing of journalists Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin in Rojava with an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) continue.
Kurdish journalists Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin were covering events in Northern and Eastern Syria when they were killed in a Turkish drone strike in December 2024. Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin were both from Northern Kurdistan, but had been working for Kurdish media organisations in the autonomous region of North and East Syria for years. On 19 December, they were on their way back from a report about the fighting between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Turkish-backed SNA mercenary troops on the Tishrin front on the Euphrates when their car, marked as a ‘press vehicle’, was deliberately targeted by a Turkish drone. The two journalists were killed instantly, while their driver was injured.
A lawsuit was filed against 14 people who were detained during the protest in Istanbul on charges of “making propaganda for an illegal organization” and “violating the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations”. The group was protesting against the killing of the two Kurdish journalists.
The hearing of the case against 14 people, 10 of whom are journalists, was held on Friday. In a press statement in front of the Istanbul Courthouse after the hearing, journalists emphasized that their colleagues were killed during their journalistic activities and drew attention to the importance of press freedom and freedom of expression.
Members of Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) and the Mesopotamia Women Journalists Association (MKG) vowed that “We will continue to be the language and action of truth”.
DİSK Basın-İş Executive Board Member İzel Sezer stated that pressures against journalists have increased and said, “The palace regime is murdering journalists to silence the voice of the people.” Speaking on behalf of MKG, journalist Diren Yurtsever said, “If the press is not free, no one is free.”
