Serbestî was an Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 newspaper. It was founded in 1908 by Mevlânzade Rıfat, who in 1924 would become one of the 150 personae non gratae

150 personae non gratae of Turkey

After the Turkish War of Independence , the newly established Republic of Turkey presented a list of 600 names to the Conference of Lausanne, which were to be declared personae non gratae. Later, a list comprising only 150 of these, put into effect by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on April...

 of the newly established Republic of Turkey.

The paper opposed the Committee of Union and Progress

Committee of Union and Progress

The Committee of Union and Progress began as a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" in 1889 by the medical students İbrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti and Ali Hüseyinzade...

 (CUP), which was coming into power at the time. The editor-in-chief of Serbestî, Hasan Fehmi Bey

Hasan Fehmi Bey

Hasan Fehmi Bey was the editor-in-chief of Serbestî, an Ottoman newspaper, in which he wrote articles against the Committee of Union and Progress...

, who wrote articles against the CUP, was murdered on April 6, 1909, the first of many Turkish journalists who have been murdered out of political motives.