Sixteen Kurdish journalists under custody since 8 June

It's been three months on 8 September that sixteen journalists were arrested in Turkey's Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir over "terror" charges, to be remanded in custody in the days to follow.

Lawyers Erselan Aktan and Veysel Ok visited the journalists in prison and reported on what the journalists said during brief conversations.

Jailed Serdar Altan, the co-chair of the Dicle-Firat Journalists' Association said:

"They are accusing us of being 'member of an illegal organization.' Their evidence is the news reports we made. We are journalists, and they know this very well. This is the reason why they constantly ask about our interviews, reports, articles. Most probably they will soon change the accusation into 'propaganda for an illegal organization.' They think reporting on the facts is propaganda."

Aziz Oruc, editor for Mezopotamya News Agency (MA), said that the authorities responded to critical news reports by lawsuits.

"They receive their scores on the basis of such lawsuits. We receive our scores on the basis of tens of news reports and interviews that we make despite all the oppression. We have been under custody for 90 days now. We will get out of this place and we will continue to make news reports when we are free."

Journalist Omer Çelik said:

"For years now, they've been trying to prove that I'm a member of an illegal organization. It was once the members of the Fetullah Gulen's movement who tried to do it. The judge, who tried to prove that I'm a member of an illegal organization by constantly placing my news reports in the case file as evidence, eventually ended up being convicted of being a member of an illegal organization led by Fetullah Gulen."