The Zaman daily’s Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanli, a journalist who has been at the helm of Turkey’s best-selling daily for 14 years, has resigned from his post over “unlawful pressure” on him and the media in general, Today’s Zaman reports.
Dumanlı released a statement on Monday to announce that he sees he cannot perform his job as the editor-in-chief of the Zaman daily due to recent pressure on him and the media.
“I think I have been unable to sufficiently and efficiently contribute to the Zaman daily, where I have been serving since 2001, and that my health does not allow this either. For this reason, I resign from the post of editor-in-chief, which I have sincerely tried to maintain as much as I could,” Dumanlı said.
Police raided the Zaman office on Dec. 14, 2014 and detained Dumanli and several other journalists, including STV network executive Hidayet Karaca, scriptwriters and producers, as part of a government-initiated media crackdown.
The charges against Dumanli were based on one news report and two columns about an al-Qaeda-linked Turkish group, which he says he has never heard of. The columns were written by two other columnists, one of whom is critical of Zaman and quit writing for the paper last year.
