Mesopotamia Agency (MA) reporters Adnan Bilen and Cemil Uğur, Jinnews reporter Şehriban Abi and journalist Nazan Sala who revealed the truth about two villagers thrown from a helicopter after being tortured in the Çatak district of Van were released from prison on April 2. Being held at the prison for 6 months, our reporters Adnan Bilen and Cemil Uğur told us about the process. 

 

Journalist Adnan Bilen told that they could forsee that they would be targeted after the news on the two villagers were published and the police started to engage with them while they were following news about other stories in the city. Explaining what they have been through before they were detained, Bilen said: "We could forsee how things will turn out. How they will raid our homes and our office. After MA published the news about the villagers, the incident was wideley known by the public both in Turkey and in the world. MA exposed other very important news at that time. We knew we were going to be targeted. Right after the news about the two villagers, police started to put a different level of pressure on our colleagues. Following a press release, it reflected to our cameras that a police officer shouted one of our reporters, 'Mesopotamia Agency can not follow the press release, we don't care who else does!" Our friends were prevented from doing their jobs. We knew that a raid was on the way. As a matter of fact, MA and Jinnews offices were raided in a few days.

 

'WE KNEW WE WERE GOING TO GET ARRESTED'

 

Underlining that they did not know on what grounds they were detained for, and neither did their lawyers but they knew that the pro-government media had already started declaring them terrorists, Bilen said: "We all knew that it was all about the helicopter incident.But the police officers did not ask one single question about it during our interrogation. The process leading to our arrest seemed fictional. We heard someone asking 'Which vehicle will take these to the prison', before we were even questioned by the prosecutor. We were sure we were going to get arrested then. And we finally were brought before the judge and got arrested with the accusation of 'making news and interviews about social incidents against the state', which actually was an accusation no one ever heard before.  

 

'THEY DID ALL THAT IN THEIR POWER TO EXTEND DETENTION'

 

Underlining that the prosecution did all that in his power to extend the detention period, Bilen said: "We were face to face with a situation that was designed to keep us longer in prison. A few of our friends whom they issued warrants for were detained 2 months later then we were arrested. They finally prepared the indictment after 4 months and a half. Unfortunately, the unlawful situation that continued from the beginning to the end was also revealed in the indictment. The claims made were so simple and ordinary that they did not even require a defense. For example, the inclusion of the issue of the  press card in the indictment indicated that they were trying to prosecute journalism in our person. If you arrest us for not having state issued press cards, then you're going to have to arrest more than half of the journalists in Turkey. They included footage and news stories from years back to make the file look thicker.

 

"The most important and strange accusation was the fact that we told our sources the name of our agency" said Bilen and added that this is something that criminalizes not only them, but also their agency and their sources. Underlining that prosecuting MA, which is legally established and is the most important news source of the opposition media in the country is unlawfull and it criminalizes the agency. Bilen said: "You can not criminalize a news agency this way. Then you'll have been criminalizing millions of its readers."

 

'WE ARE READY TO PAY THE PRICE'

 

Bilen said: "Working for the free press is hard as it comes with a price. If they are making us pay a price, so be it. We will continue to expose the facts. Our friends have paid great prices to expose the facts. So will we if this is what we have to do to do journalism. Although, this fact should not be looked over. There is no other way than to be in solidarity with the free press and within the free press while it's being illegalized and marginalized. We can't let them turn the country into a prison for journalists. We have seen during our prosecution that we will get over this darkness and solidarity will always win."

 

'OUR PHONES WERE TAPPED'

 

Stating that their phones were tapped and the police were listening in their calls for the last 7 months before they were arrested, Cemil Uğur said, even though the tapes should have been destroyed as a result of the decision of the prosecution, they weren't and they were included in their case file. Uğur said: "Because we exposed the fact that the soldiers tortured and threw two villagers from a helicopter, they kept the tapes and arrested us for them"

 

Underlining that they know how hard it is to work as a journalist in Turkey, Uğur told that the prosecutor arrested them instead of investigating what happened to those two villagers. Uğur said: "We were arrested illegally. When we looked at the indictment, we saw that all of the accusations were about journalism. They accused me of speaking to the family of a sick prisoner and writing their story and I told them this was merely journalism. They tried to marginalize our agency. These are hollow accusations. We exposed the truth and we were arrested because press isn't free in Turkey."

 

'WE WILL CONTINUE OUR WORK AS JOURNALISTS'

 

Underlining the importance of solidarity and telling that it has a lot to do with their release, Uğur thanked for the awards granted them by People's Houses and Metin Göktepe Awards. Uğur said: "As the free press workers, these awards are medals of honour for us. We will continue our work as journalists, defending democracy and human rights. We have been telling that journalism is not a crime from the first they we started working as journalists and it was our duty to inform the public about the truth. We will continue to do our jobs."

 

 

MA / Müjdat Can