Oct 10, 2017

Turkish court sentences WSJ reporter to 2 years in prison

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Photo: Darko Vojinovic / AP

Wall Street Journal reporter Ayla Albayrak was sentenced by a Turkish court to two years and one month in prison on Tuesday for, in the court's view, "engaging in terrorist propaganda in support of a banned Kurdish separatist organization," according to the Journal. Albayrak is currently in the U.S. and plans to appeal the decision, WSJ reports.

Why it matters: Turkey has 188 journalists jailed currently, surpassing any other country, per Bloomberg. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in September that most of the jailed journalists "aren't journalists whatsoever. Most of these are terrorists."

The article: Albayrak's 2015 article focused on conflict between Turkish security forces in Silopi, Turkey, and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (the PKK), which the Turkish government considers a terrorist organization. Editor in Chief Gerard Baker said the "purpose of the article was to provide objective and independent reporting on events in Turkey, and it succeeded."

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