Turkish journalist briefly arrested for sharing a cartoon
On 17 March 2021, Enver Aysever, a columnist for the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, was arrested and interrogated for a tweet, dating from March 2020, showing a cartoon realised by Turkish cartoonist Burol Cün. The cartoon represents a man in a medical suit disinfecting a religious cleric’s mind. The Turkish authorities charged him with “denigrating religious values observed by a part of the public” according to press sources.
Released on the day of his interrogation, Aysever could face a one-and-half year imprisonment for sharing a cartoon. Cartooning for Peace is closely monitoring the case, hoping that the charges against the journalist will be dropped and that the cartoonist – whose cartoon is incriminated – will not be arrested.