In Julia Arciga’s August 29th story “Erdogan Cracks Down on Press After Turkey Coup,” we made an editorial decision that, we feel, warrants explication.

In an interview conducted over FaceTime, Tunca Öğreten, a journalist with the Turkish online news organization Diken, made the deliberate and intentional choice of saying the following three statements, among others, to MediaFile:

“Erdogan is taking this opportunity to press all other journalists that are opposed to him. There’s been really hard pressure on us since July 15. I don’t know the exact number, but I know that more than 15 have been jailed, and more 60-70 detained.”

“The government has realized that jailing journos and pushing publications is not a solution that is effective. They still kept doing jobs,” said Öğreten. “Many of the opposition papers have too big of a following. Diken gets a million hits a day. If Diken shut down, a million people would ask the government ‘What are you doing?’”

“I’m going to stay here, write what I see and resist. Running away is not a solution for us. I don’t wanna leave for this guy that’s in office. This is my country.”

Article 301 of the Turkey’s penal code makes insults against the state illegal, and Öğreten has been tried for these charges in recent months.

In making these on-the-record comments, Öğreten assured us he has agreed to their publication.

MediaFile will not regularly publish comments that can endanger or jeopardize the freedom of any person; that being said, we feel they are crucial to the telling of this story.

If you have any questions about the ethical or editorial decisions discussed in this note, or something we have failed to mention, please feel free to reach out to us via email at nover@mediafiledc.com or hymes@mediafiledc.com. Thank you.

This post has been updated to remove profanity from an interview.