Arrest warrants have been issued for another 47 journalists suspected of having links to the recent failed coup in Turkey.
Issued on Tuesday the warrants are against “executives and some staff, including columnists of Zaman newspaper,” Reuters reported.
On Monday Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for 42 other journalists.
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Human rights groups have slammed the ‘witch hunt against journalists’ as President Erdoğan arrests those he claims to suspect of plotting the attempted coup.
Press TV reports:
Back in March, Turkish authorities seized control of Zaman and Today’s Zaman newspapers as well as the Cihan News Agency, all part of the Feza Media Group.
Feza Media is said to have close connections with Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric and an outspoken opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his policies whom authorities accuse of having been behind the July 25 putsch.
On Monday, Turkish authorities had ordered the arrest of 42 journalists over similar suspicions.
The botched coup began by a faction of the Turkish military during which tanks, helicopters, and soldiers clashed with police and people on the streets of the capital Ankara and Istanbul.
A total of 290 people were killed in the attempted coup d’état. More than 13,000 people have been detained ever since.
The Turkish official called Zaman “the Gulen movement’s flagship media organization.”
“The prosecutors aren’t interested in what individual columnists wrote or said. At this point, the reasoning is that prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation.”
Meanwhile, the Turkish military said 8,651 soldiers took part in the failed attempt to overthrow the government, accounting for about 1.5 percent of the army.
