Turkey is known for arresting and imprisoning journalists for doing their job.
So it should come as no surprise that Turkish authorities have arrested three journalists from Vice News charging them with supporting a terrorist organization, namely ISIS. The three arrested journalists had been reporting from southeast Turkey which as see a rise of unrest following Turkish armed forces attacks on the PKK.
So it should come as no surprise that Turkish authorities have arrested three journalists from Vice News charging them with supporting a terrorist organization, namely ISIS. The three arrested journalists had been reporting from southeast Turkey which as see a rise of unrest following Turkish armed forces attacks on the PKK.
A Turkish court has charged three journalists working with Vice News with “aiding a terrorist organisation” and ordered their arrest pending trial in a move that has caused indignation and outrage amongst journalists and international human rights groups.
Correspondent Jake Hanrahan and cameraman Philip Pendlebury, who are British, and their Turkey-based fixer and a driver were taken into police custody on Thursday while working in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakir. They were covering recent clashes between Turkish security forces and the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement, the youth wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). They were charged by the court on Monday.
According to the lawyer representing Hanrahan, Pendlebury and their fixer, who wished to remain unnamed, police acted upon a tipoff by an anonymous caller, who claimed the journalists were “working with the Islamic State”.
Turkish press face arrests, harassment
Anti-press measures in Turkey are having a devastating impact on the country's media. Journalists face harassment and prosecution over social media posts; authorities repeatedlygag coverage of sensitive issues; and reporters face detentions, raids, and investigations.Mehmet Baransu, who helped the newspaperTaraf expose the alleged Sledgehammer coup plot, is charged with obtaining secret documents. Turkey's reputation as a leading jailer of journalists improves with the release of dozens of imprisoned journalists in 2014, but doubts persist over the country's commitment to press freedom.
CPJ calls for the release of VICE News reporters, fixer, in Diyarbakir, Turkey
New York, August 28, 2015--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir to release British journalists Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury immediately. The journalists were on assignment with the U.S.-based global news channel VICE News when they, along with their fixer, were detained by police in Baglar district on Thursday, news reports said.
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