Turkish journalists facing jail time for reprinting Charlie Hebdo cover

A Turkish prosecutor has accused two journalists of "insulting people's religious values" after they reprinted a Charlie Hebdo cover featuring a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed.

On Wednesday, the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet announced that columnists Ceyda Karan and Hikmet Cetinkaya face jail terms of four-and-a-half years. "We are being threatened with prison for defending free speech," Karan told Reuters. "Neither of us will abandon our defense of free speech." The secular paper received threats after it printed the caricature in solidarity following the Jan. 7 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, and Karan has had a bodyguard ever since.

The prosecutor began investigating the journalists after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused the newspaper of "incitement." Turkey's penal code makes it a crime to insult religion.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up