International press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) placed a full-page ad in The Washington Post on Wednesday to raise awareness of Turkish journalist Erol Önderoğlu, who faces 14 years in prison for supporting a Kurdish newspaper, the Ahval news website reported.
The advertisement was published through the Press Freedom Partnership, a public service initiative of The Washington Post to support press freedom. The official Twitter account of the newspaper’s public relations team also shared the ad under the hashtag #SupportErol.
Önderoğlu, the representative of RSF in Turkey, is facing 14 years, six months in prison for three articles published in 2016 in Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem, which was shut down the same year by the government along with nine other newspapers and two news agencies.
The journalist was detained in 2016 for his articles in Özgür Gündem, along with Şebnem Korur Fincancı, Turkey’s top expert on torture, and writer Ahmet Nesin. Önderoğlu and Fincancı were released 10 days later, while Nesin remained in custody for 20 days.
Turkish Minute