Categories: OLD Media Moves

Turkish court sentences WSJ reporter to 25 months in prison

A Turkish court sentenced Wall Street Journal reporter Ayla Albayrak to two years and one month in prison Tuesday, declaring her guilty of engaging in terrorist propaganda in support of a banned Kurdish separatist organization through one of her Journal articles.

Thomas Grove of The Journal writes, “The conviction of Ms. Albayrak, who is currently in New York, highlights the increasing targeting of journalists in Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has gained attention for deteriorating media freedoms.

“‘This was an unfounded criminal charge and wildly inappropriate conviction that wrongly singled out a balanced Wall Street Journal report,’ said Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Gerard Baker. ‘The sole purpose of the article was to provide objective and independent reporting on events in Turkey, and it succeeded.’

“Ms. Albayrak plans to appeal the decision.

“‘Given the current climate in Turkey, this appalling decision shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me, but it did,’ said Ms. Albayrak.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.