Turkey journalists stand up for jailed colleague after 500 days

A group of Turkish journalists today staged a protest urging freedom for all jailed colleagues, after the chairman of an opposition daily marked spending 500 days in prison.

The Cumhuriyet daily's editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu and investigative reporter Ahmet Sik walked free from prison last Friday after more than a year in jail although they remain on trial.

But paper's chairman Akin Atalay is still held in jail and is the only suspect of 17 Cumhuriyet staff probed in the case still behind bars.

Atalay spent his 500th day in detention on Wednesday, the paper marking it with an editorial headlined "Injustice on its 500th day."
But he admitted it was a great feeling to "see the sky."
Musa Kart, the paper's cartoonist who was jailed in the case and then released last year, said the case was based on "unfair, unlawful and baseless allegations."
"I believe that journalists and politicians behind bars should obtain their freedom."