Latest Round Of Turkey’s Assault On Media Within The Country Ropes In Cartoonist Musa Kart

The Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart was among nine arrested from the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet on charges of committing crimes that favor the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and a network of sympathizers led by Fethullah Gulen.

Arrested with Kart were the paper's editor-in-chief and several board members of the newspaper and its foundation. In somewhat terrifying fashion, those that denied the accusation were kept in custody because those charges might mean they start a counter-narrative if free.

While this latest move is more powerfully strident than past strikes against media entities within Turkey, the country has long had a troublesome history of hostility towards journalists and comics-makers, using pressure from the courts to quell what most countries' cultures would see as not only acceptable but almost benign counter-opinion. Kart has frequently run up against these counter-measures, at one point severe enough political observers thought it might directly harm Turkey's ability to forge close ties with western countries.

The latest seems to be that the court reprimanded those in custody on Saturday night, which doesn't sound like movement in a direction that might favor Kart and his fellow journalists.

The cartoonist's slot was left blank to focus attention on Kart's plight.
 
posted 10:55 pm PST | Permalink
 

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