The Turkish justice system sometimes feels like a spectacle that would be amusing if the subject weren't so serious. On Friday, April 18, in room 27-A of the Çaglayan Courthouse in Istanbul, 99 defendants, mostly students, were called to defend themselves against accusations of participating in unauthorized protests following the arrest of the city's mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, on March 19. Imamoglu is the principal rival and nemesis of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Among the many present, often standing or sitting in the aisles, were three reporters and four photojournalists, including Bülent Kiliç, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 2014, and Yasin Akgül from Agence France-Presse, who were covering these protests and were also on trial.

From the first minutes of the hearing, one of the journalists' lawyers, Veysel Ok, reminded the court of the fanciful charges concocted by what he called a parody of justice. Forced to explain the presence of his clients at the protests, he stated very seriously that "journalists cover protests, they are paid to do that and they were indeed there as journalists."

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