ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—A court in Istanbul has ordered the closure of the daily Özgür Gündem on charges it is a source of propaganda for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), saying it is the group’s “de facto news outlet.” The Istanbul 8th Criminal Court of Peace approved a request from the peace magistrate to temporarily shut down the paper, which has a print circulation of about 7,500, according to a statement issued on Tuesday from the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office. At least 21 journalists were detained in a raid on the paper’s office on Tuesday. The closure of Özgür Gündem has been condemned by media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). "Turkish authorities have subjected Özgür Gündem's staff to relentless judicial harassment for years," said CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova. "July's failed military coup in no way justifies closing this pro-Kurdish newspaper or detaining journalists for their work. We call on authorities to release all of the journalists taken into custody and allow the newspaper to publish freely." The Kurdish daily, which was founded in 1992, was closed for more than two-thirds of its life because of problems with the authorities. Twenty-seven of its staff were killed in the first two years of its publication. It began publishing again on April 4, 2011 but problems with the authorities resumed last summer when Ankara and the PKK ended their ceasefire. In May, after the arrests of the editors-in-chief of the paper, guest editors volunteered to edit the paper for a day, in solidarity with the media outlet and press freedom. At least three of the guest editors were subsequently arrested on charges of disseminating terrorist propaganda. The closure of Özgür Gündem is the latest event in Ankara’s crackdown on civil society following the failed coup attempt of July 15. Ankara claims it is purging undemocratic supporters of the coup who have infiltrated all aspects and levels of Turkish society and the military. Turkey’s crackdown has spread to Twitter which has reportedly instituted limited censorship of select media outlets and journalists in order to avoid an outright ban in the country, according to a report from The Daily Dot, which reported that Twitter censored at least 12 accounts of individual journalists and three accounts of media outlets after the coup attempt. The censored Twitter accounts reportedly include Kurdish journalist Amed Dicle, @AmedDicleeT, and the Kurdish media outlets Özgür Gündem, @ozgurgundemweb1, and DiHA, @DicleHaberAjans.
