revealing state secrets that posed a threat to state security or to Turkey's domestic or foreign interests. Dündar was sentenced to seven years in prison, reduced to five years and 10 months; and Gül to six years, reduced to five, under Article 329 of the Turkish Penal Code. Reporters Without Borders said the arrests sent “an extremely grave signal about media freedom in Turkey.” This crackdown on the press, which has reached new levels in March 2016 with the seizure of opposition newspaper Zaman, one of Turkey's leading media outlets, has sparked widespread criticism inside Turkey as well as internationally. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has declared that Press freedom in Turkey is "under siege". Jodie Ginsberg, the CEO of Index on Censorship, a campaigning organisation for freedom of expression, has declared that "Turkey's assault on press freedom is the act of a dictatorship, not a democracy". In the course of the 2016 Turkish purges, the licenses of 24 radio and television channels and the press cards of 34 journalists accused of being linked to Gülen were revoked. Two people were arrested for praising the coup attempt and insulting President Erdoğan on social media. On 25 July, Nazlı Ilıcak was taken into custody. On 27 July 2016, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shut down 16 television channels, 23 radio stations, 45 daily newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishing houses in another emergency decree under the newly adopted emergency legislation. The closed outlets notably include Gülen-affiliated Cihan News Agency, Samanyolu TV and the previously leading newspaper Zaman (including its English-language version Today's Zaman), but also the opposition daily newspaper Taraf which was known to be in close relations with the Gulen Movement. Since Zaman's seizure, the newspaper radically changed its editorial policy. In late October 2016, Turkish authorities shut down 15 media outlets, including one of the world's only women's news agencies, and detained the editor-in-chief of the prominent secularist Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, "on accusations that they committed crimes on behalf of Kurdish militants and a network linked to the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen". Government seizure of independent media companies On 26 October 2015, just a few days before the November 1 general elections, Koza İpek Holding was placed under a panel of mainly pro-government trustees. The company's media assets include two daily newspapers, Bugün and Millet, and two TV/radio stations, and Kanaltürk TV. İpek Media Group was closed