'We Will Continue to Discomfort Them With Our Stories'

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Berivan Bila, a final year student at the Journalism Department of the Black Sea Technical University, Faculty of Communication and a member of Trabzon Community House, was detained on December 6, 2018 due to the posts that she shared on social media and arrested two days later.

Bila was sent to Trabzon Prison due to her article entitled "Journalism is not a Crime", for which she is charged with insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. After her attorneys appealed against her arrest, Bila was released today (December 17).

'In the prosecutor's room, I understood that I would get arrested'

Bila talked to bianet after her release, saying that she was greatly supported by women in the prison:

"Women were always the greatest supporters for me. I got used to the prison thanks to them. I will not forget any of them. There is a life established in the prison and the women continue to produce. I also witnessed this even it was for a short time."

Bila said that she did not think she would be arrested when she was taken into custody for the first time, but when she went into the prosecutor's room, she understood that she will be arrested:

"When I went into the prosecutor's room, I understood that there is a sham. From the prosecutor's attitude, I felt that I would get arrested. They made a big deal out of it and arrested me. I think I was arrested in accordance with an order from above."

'I won't give up journalism'

Saying that many journalists are imprisoned in Turkey because of telling the truth, Bila underpinned that she will not give up journalism and telling the truth:

"We will continue to defend the right and tell the truth. As we tell the truth, they will not sit on their chairs comfortably. We will discomfort them with our journalism. Telling the truth is a responsibility for our profession. They shouldn't expect me to give up my journalism. I did the right thing. I did journalism for common good, I will continue to do it."

An award-winning journalist

Bila won the Encouragement of Journalism Award from the Journalists Association of Trabzon in 2015. She also won a grand prize in a photography contest held by the Ministry of Forestry.

According to the BİA Media Monitoring Report, 32 journalists were tried in the cases which were filed for "insult" in April, May and June 2018. The journalists faced 77 years and 4 months and convicted to 1 year, 10 months and 5 days in prison in total. (EMK/VK)