09 March 2016•Update: 09 March 2016
ANKARA
Turkey’s Constitutional Court has said that the high-profile arrest of two newspaper journalists had been against “[free] speech and press freedom”.
The court revealed on Wednesday its reasons for ordering the release from custody of Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, senior journalists at the Cumhuriyet newspaper.
The two men were released from jail in February after the Constitutional Court ruled that their rights had been violated.
They had been arrested in Nov. 2015 over the publication of photographs and video footage purportedly showing shells and ammunition loaded on Syria-bound trucks belonging to Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT).
Dundar and Gul faced charges of espionage, attempting to overthrow the government and supporting terrorism.
Describing the arrests as a “severe measure” the court said the detentions had been “unacceptable as a necessary and proportionate response in a democratic society regarding [free] speech and press freedom”.
The court also said that similar news stories had been published months ago before Cumhuriyet printed the story at the heart of the Dundar/Gul case.
