No Free Speech in Turkey -- Unless You Write for Gulen

Unless you write for Gulen's newpapers

Our buddy Gulen just doesn't like criticism, in fact -- anyone that reports "unfavorable," or truthful information about him and his gang of Gulenites, is subject to his wrath. In the United States, when the truth about him his exposed, his comrades like to threaten lawsuits; but in Turkey -- they just set the dissenters up on fabricated charges and have them jailed -- out of sight -- out of mind.

It looks like freedom of speech is not recognized in Turkey -- unless one happens to be writing something favorable about Gulen (and most assuredly as part of his immense media conglomerate). They have been rounding up Turkish journalists and throwing them in jail because the writers are exposing Gulen's infiltration into the government and police forces, and Gulen and his boys are unhappy about that...

Maybe some of our politicians who are so big on proclaiming "Gulen Days," can give him some hints on the 1st Amendment rights.

Here's an article that was published in the NY Times Turkish edition that highlights how the guys running Turkey are systematically stripping the civil rights away from the writers -- just because they can.

7 More Journalists Detained in Turkey

By SEBNEM ARSU

Published: March 3, 2011Bottom of Form

ISTANBUL — Seven journalists were detained Thursday in connection with a long-running investigation into a murky network that prosecutors maintain has been plotting to overthrow the government, a case that critics have characterized as a pretext to neutralize dissidents.

The police raided the homes and offices of 11 people in Ankara and Istanbul. Among those detained were Nedim Sener, an investigative journalist for the newspaper Milliyet; Yalcin Kucuk, a writer who is a prominent critic of the governing Justice and Development Party; and Ahmet Sik, a journalist and academic who alleges that an Islamic movement associated with Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish-born cleric living in the United States, has infiltrated the country’s security forces.

Mr. Sener and Mr. Sik were defiant as police officers took them into custody at their homes before television cameras. “Whoever touches it gets burned!” Mr. Sik shouted, referring to the Gulen movement. Mr. Sener’s neighbors decorated his Istanbul building with Turkish flags to protest his detention.

Four journalists with an anti-government Web site, OdaTV, were also detained. A few weeks ago, the authorities raided the Web site’s offices and arrested the site’s owner, its news editor and a writer.

The arrests are the latest in a years-old investigation into purported plots to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government after his Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002, unnerving the country’s secular elite with its Islamic roots. Dozens of current and former military personnel, as well as intellectuals and politicians, have been arrested in connection with various plots that prosecutors say were conducted under the auspices of a network called Ergenekon.

Leaders of Turkey’s armed forces have denied that any military-led plot existed. Critics of the government say the investigation has become a pretext for punishing opponents of the government.

Mr. Erdogan said Thursday that the case would proceed in accordance with the law. “Regarding today’s detentions; as we’ve always said, these are not things that happen upon our orders,” he said in a televised statement from Ankara. “The only thing I want to say is that these processes should be concluded as soon as possible.”

The head of the Ankara Bar Association, Metin Feyzioglu, called the raids illegal, given what he characterized as a lack of clear allegations. “These search warrants are against the law,” he said in a televised statement in front of Mr. Kucuk’s office in Ankara. “Everyone can be subject to these search warrants based on abstract reasons, without specific accusations,” he said.

The Turkish Journalists Association says 58 journalists in the country have been imprisoned. A United States State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said last month that the United States had “broad concerns about trends involving intimidation of journalists in Turkey.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/world/europe/04turkey.html