Hürriyet journalists say #FreeAJStaff because #JournalismIsNotCrime

ISTANBUL

Hürriyet journalists have voiced their support for jailed Al-Jazeera English staff at the newspaper’s Istanbul headquarters.

Hürriyet journalists at the newspaper’s Istanbul headquarters have voiced their support for jailed Al-Jazeera English staff in Egypt, whose trial resumed on April 22, the 115th day they have spent in prison.

The trial of Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy, Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohamed resumed in Cairo, on charges including “spreading false news” and supporting the now blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood of deposed president Mohamed Morsi.

At the Hürriyet World building in Istanbul, Turkish editors and reporters, including Hürriyet Publication Director Fikret Ercan, Print Coordinator Emre Oral, Digital Media Coordinator Bülent Mumay and Hürriyet Daily News editor-in-chief Murat Yetkin, taped their mouths in protest against repression of free speech in Egypt.

“Dictators and military regimes everywhere in the world see journalism as a crime and they attempt to criminalize journalism, because they are enemies of the facts. Peter, Mohammad and Baher, we stand by you,” said Sedat Ergin, an award-winning daily Hürriyet columnist.

The three Al-Jazeera English journalists were arrested in Egypt on Dec. 29, 2013. They have been charged with spreading false news, aiding or belonging to a terrorist organization, and operating without a permit.

On April 10, the trial was adjourned for a fifth time and the journalists returned to prison, amid widespread condemnation from the international media and human rights groups.