They are no longer numbers: photographs of journalists being taken away by the Turkish police

Arrest warrants have been issued in Turkey for 89 journalists, and 40 of them have been detained by the police. Twenty-one of them were hauled to court under arrest yesterday, in a mass hearing that lasted until midnight. Four were let go but 17 have been charged with belonging to a terrorist group.

The Turkish government has used the ongoing ‘state of emergency’ to close down 130 newspapers, television stations, radio stations, publishers and news agencies.

Mahir Zeynalov, a Washington-based correspondent for Today’s Zaman, the English language version of the Turkish newspaper Zaman, has tweeted photographs showing police arresting some of these journalists yesterday. They are no longer numbers: seeing their faces and photographs of them being led away drives the grim reality home.