Turkish court jails 16 Kurdish journalists over alleged terrorist links
Turkish court sentences 16 Kurdish journalists to jail for alleged terrorist ties and collaboration with a pro-Kurdish party. The Journalists Association of Turkey expresses concerns about the state of press freedom in the country. Turkey has detained numerous journalists over the years, raising alarms about media freedom.
A Turkish court has jailed 16 Kurdish journalists for “belonging to a terrorist organisation” and their close cooperation with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Diyarbarkir. They were also accused of spreading terrorist propaganda and since 2016 several hundred HDP members have already been detained.
Nazim Bilgin, the president of the Journalists’ Association of Turkey warns that: “We are living in the darkest days of our country as far as press freedom is concerned.” It is also alarming that Turkey has jailed more reporters than most other countries in the previous decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.