One Month Closure Penalty for Yürüyüs Magazine

The "March (Yürüyüs) for Independent Democracy Socialism" magazine featured Kevser Mizrak on the cover of its 135th issue. Mizrak was killed in a police raid on her home. 

The Istanbul 9th Heavy Penal Court said that the cover and expressions such as "revolutionaries die, but revolutions continue" and "they could not force surrender" represented "propaganda of an illegal organisation" under Article 7/2 of Law No. 3713 and the magazine was closed for a month.

Also citing Article 25/2 of Press Law No 5187,  the issue was confiscated, and the sale and distribution of the issue has been forbidden. The court said that the photo was of "member of an illegal organisation who died in an armed battle with security forces."

"Freedom to express racism, fascism and support for sharia" 

Halit Güdenoglu, owner and editor of the magazine, said: "If there were freedom of expression and the press in Turkey, then prosecutors would not be opening dozens of cases against articles in democratic publications."

Güdenoglu said that racist, fascist, sharia-supporting and religious thoughts were freely expressed in Turkey: "In this country, the press is free to defend American imperialism, the exploitation by a monopolising bourgeoisie, to spread their ideological and cultural propaganda, to applaude the occupations of imperialists, and to praise fascist terrorism, executions and lynching."

The editor of the magazine, which has been publishing for three years, said that it was permissible to kill Kevser Mizrak when she could have been taken alive, but that it was not permissible to write about her murder.

Güdenoglu called on others to protest against the closure of Yürüyüs magazine. (EZÖ/AG)