The journalists, Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay, were among those arrested in the wake of the failed July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday condemned Turkey over the detention of two journalists, citing violations of their rights to liberty, security and freedom of expression. On 16 March, the Constitutional Court issued a second ruling in Alpay's case filed after the lower courts refused to release him in line with the first Constitutional Court ruling, this time openly urging the trial court to release Alpay to remedy the violation. “Since 15 July 2016, 231 journalists had been arrested and more than 150 remained in prison.”

Awarding both men more than $26,400 in damages, the court directed Turkey to immediately terminate the pretrial detention of Alpay, who was released and put on house arrest last week in anticipation of today’s ruling. In its judgments, the ECtHR also said Altan's continued pre-trial detention and the fact that Alpay had been kept in pre-trial detention even after the Constitutional Court's judgment “raised serious doubts as to the effectiveness of the remedy of an individual application to the Constitutional Court in cases concerning pre-trial detention" and added that it was up to the government to prove that this remedy is effective, in theory and in practice.
The European Court of Human Rights says that Turkish authorities violated the rights of journalists Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay when they were arrested in the aftermath of a failed coup. The court ruled the men, one of whom is now serving life, were innocent and their rights to freedom of expression and to liberty had been violated.