January 14, 2015
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A Turkish court on Wednesday ordered a ban on access to websites showing Charlie Hebdo's cover with the image of the Prophet Muhammad.
A court in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir prohibited access to the websites in Turkey, the state-run Anadolu News Agency said, after a lawyer reportedly filed a petition saying the four sites were a danger to "public order."
Earlier, police stopped trucks leaving a pro-secular newspaper's printing center and checked the paper's content after it decided to print a selection of Charlie Hebdo caricatures. The paper printed a four-page selection of cartoons and articles in a show of solidarity with Charlie Hebdo.
Cumhuriyet newspaper said police allowed distribution because the four-page selection of cartoons did not feature the satirical French newspaper's latest cover. But two Cumhuriyet columnists used small, black-and-white images of the cover as their column headers in Wednesday's issue.
It wasn't immediately clear if the columnists' use of the cover image escaped the attention of police. "While preparing this selection, we respected societies' freedoms of faith and religious sensitivities," Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Uktu Cakirozer said in a statement.
"There may have been some (people) who were worried that this would be an issue that would belittle religious beliefs ... But I believe that people won't think that way when they see today's issue," Cakirozer later told The Associated Press in an interview.
On the two columnists' decision to use images of the cover in their columns, Cakirozer said: "That was the personal choice of our writers." Police intensified security outside Cumhuriyet's headquarters and printing center as a precaution, and at least five protesters were detained in Istanbul, including one who shouted "you cannot attack my religion or prophet." Small groups of pro-Islamic demonstrators protested Cumhuriyet in Ankara and in the central city of Konya, Anadolu reported.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan took to Twitter to criticize use of the prophet's image, calling it an act of "sedition and provocation," without naming any publications.
Ayse Wieting in Istanbul contributed to this report.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A Turkish court on Wednesday ordered a ban on access to websites showing Charlie Hebdo's cover with the image of the Prophet Muhammad.
A court in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir prohibited access to the websites in Turkey, the state-run Anadolu News Agency said, after a lawyer reportedly filed a petition saying the four sites were a danger to "public order."
Earlier, police stopped trucks leaving a pro-secular newspaper's printing center and checked the paper's content after it decided to print a selection of Charlie Hebdo caricatures. The paper printed a four-page selection of cartoons and articles in a show of solidarity with Charlie Hebdo.
Cumhuriyet newspaper said police allowed distribution because the four-page selection of cartoons did not feature the satirical French newspaper's latest cover. But two Cumhuriyet columnists used small, black-and-white images of the cover as their column headers in Wednesday's issue.
It wasn't immediately clear if the columnists' use of the cover image escaped the attention of police. "While preparing this selection, we respected societies' freedoms of faith and religious sensitivities," Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Uktu Cakirozer said in a statement.
"There may have been some (people) who were worried that this would be an issue that would belittle religious beliefs ... But I believe that people won't think that way when they see today's issue," Cakirozer later told The Associated Press in an interview.
On the two columnists' decision to use images of the cover in their columns, Cakirozer said: "That was the personal choice of our writers." Police intensified security outside Cumhuriyet's headquarters and printing center as a precaution, and at least five protesters were detained in Istanbul, including one who shouted "you cannot attack my religion or prophet." Small groups of pro-Islamic demonstrators protested Cumhuriyet in Ankara and in the central city of Konya, Anadolu reported.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan took to Twitter to criticize use of the prophet's image, calling it an act of "sedition and provocation," without naming any publications.
Ayse Wieting in Istanbul contributed to this report.
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