by the government of masterminding the coup attempt. (6) The United Nations Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in its Opinion of August 16, 2019, found the Government of Turkey's detention of judges Melike Göksan and Mehmet Fatih Göksan to be arbitrary and note[d] a significant increase in the number of cases brought to it in the last two years concerning arbitrary detention in Turkey. The Working Group stated that it appears that a pattern is emerging whereby those with alleged links to the Gulen movement are being targeted on the basis of their political or other opinion. (7) Turkey remains the world’s worst jailer of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. (8) President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began a crackdown on journalism before the 2016 coup attempt, which he then intensified. The Committee to Protect Journalists estimated that Turkey was holding at least 68 journalists in jail at the end of 2018. According to a September 18, 2019, joint statement by civil society organizations, at least 180 media outlets have been forcibly closed since the coup attempt. Kurdish-language and Kurdish-focused media outlets are especially vulnerable. An unknown number of journalists remain outside the country due to fear of arrest. (9) The release of employees of the Cumhuriyet newspaper is a welcome yet insufficient step towards ending the persecution of the press in Turkey. (10) The Government of Turkey has also targeted writers and academics. Of roughly 2,000 academics who signed a January 2016 petition calling for a restart to peace negotiations between the government and the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), more than 700 scholars were criminally charged with making propaganda for a terrorist organization. (11) The Government of Turkey continues its unjust, two-year detention of civil society leader Osman Kavala. Turkish authorities have charged Kavala and 15 others with attempting to overthrow the government or to prevent it from performing its duties based on