JINHA

ANKARA – Turkish security forces briefly detained award-winning journalist Zeynep Kuray yesterday in a case related to one of her recent stories.

Zeynep Kuray, a journalist at the daily BirGün and a reporter for Firat News Agency, was visiting her father in Ankara’s Sincan Prison together with her sister and Revolutionary People’s Party (DHP) chairman Celal Özcan when she was detained.

The detention was related to a case in which Kuray was accused of slander in a news story investigating the Yüksekova district in southeastern Turkey. A Yüksekova court ordered police to bring Zeynep to the hearing by force, saying she had not testified in the case.

"After I wrote about an unpunished event in Yüksekova and the police mentioned in my report complained, the prosecutor's office started an investigation," said Zeynep, speaking after she was released, "but despite the face that there was no notice of summons for me to testimony, there was an order given for my arrest." She said she was released after she gave her testimony.

Zeynep won the Turkish Journalists Association’s Press Freedom Award and Italy’s Ilaria Alpi Award last year after she spent time in jail. She was among the several journalists arrested for allegedly being a member of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) and its press committee in 2011. She was released on April 26, 2013.

(nt/cm)