Journalist Canözer, Peace Mother Teke detained

* Photo: Jinnews

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Jinnews reporter Beritan Canözer has been taken into custody in a house raid in the district of Bağlar in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır. Searching and messing up the house, the police have seized several books and digital materials as well.

As reported by Jinnews, while the reason for the journalist's detention is yet unknown, she has been taken to the Diyarbakır Security Directorate.

Women's association raided

As reported by Mezopotamya Agency (MA), the police have also raided Rosa Women's Association and several other addresses in Diyarbakır, taking several people into custody. While the search is still ongoing at the association's office, several people, including Peace Mother Nezahat Teke, have been detained as part of the operation in the province. 

The association has shared a message on its Twitter account and said, "We will never give up on our struggle. We are here, we will be here."

About Beritan Canözer

Taken into custody in Diyarbakır in December 2015, Canözer was held in detention in the Counterterrorism Branch for four days.

JİNHA, for which she was working at the time, reported that Canözer was detained by special operation police teams on the grounds of "reasonable doubt". Though having said "I am a journalist and following up news", it was claimed that she had "directed the protest march" and stated that she had been "taken into custody due to her feverish manners".

Appearing before the judge on December 19, she was arrested over his news notes and social media messages.

According to the indictment submitted to the Diyarbakır 4th Heavy Penal Court, Canözer was charged with "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" and "membership of a terrorist organization." It was claimed that "she made propaganda by using her identity as a journalist."

Referred from the Diyarbakır Type E Prison to the İstanbul Bakırköy Women's Closed Prison on March 13, she was released at her first hearing on March 29, 2016. Canözer was previously granted the Jury's Special Award in the 19th Metin Göktepe Journalism Awards.

About Jin News

With a team of woman editors and reporters, JinNews ("woman news" in Kurdish) exclusively focuses on women's issues.

It is published in five languages: Turkish, Kurdish, Zaza language, English and Arabic. It was founded on September 25, 2017, with the slogan, "On the path to truth, with women's pen." Safiye Alağaş, the news director of the website, was awarded the International Prize for Journalism by the Italy-based Maria Grazia Cutuli Onlus Foundation.

JinNews succeeds outlets that were shut down upon statutory decrees (KHK). The JİNHA, which had defined itself as the "first women's news agency in Turkey," was shut down on October 29, 2016, upon Statutory Decree no. 675. The "Gazete Şûjin," founded in December 2016, was shut down on August 25, 2017, upon Statutory Decree no. 693. (EMK/SD)