MEDIA MONITORING DATABASE
Censorship on journalist Ömer Çelik’s letter for being “objectionable”
RELATED PERSON OR INSTITUTION
Ömer Çelik
CITY
Diyarbakır
YEAR OF INTERFERENCE
2022
LAST UPDATED
03/07/2022
TYPE OF STATEMENT
Political
MEDIUM
Other
THE TITLE OF WHOSE RIGHT IS INTERFERED
Journalist
RIGHTS GUARANTEED UNDER THE RIGHT OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Right to Impart Information and Ideas
TYPE OF INTERFERENCE
Third-Party Interference
Other
THE LEGAL GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE
Turkish Penal Code
Art. 314/1

Taken into custody on June 8, 2022 as part of an investigation launched by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, 16 of the 22 people, 20 of whom were journalists, were arrested by the court on June 16. Of the journalists sent to the Diyarbakır Type D Closed Prison, journalist Ömer Çelik’s letter to a colleague and a colleague’s letter to him were not given as they were found “objectionable” by the prison administration.

The letter penned by journalist Çelik to his colleague Mehmet Güneş on June 28 was seized by the prison administration for being “objectionable”. As the reason for the seizure, it was said, “…he has targeted the State of the Republic of Turkey, the public institutions, judges and prosecutors by making baseless and humiliating accusations and as it may also lead to intra-organizational communication and encrypted correspondence…” (July 3).