Turkish journalists charged with espionage, aiding terrorist organization

Two prominent Turkish journalists have been arrested on charges of espionage and aiding an armed terrorist organization, according to a news report. Government officials accuse Gulen’s supporters of stopping the trucks as part of an alleged plot to bring down the government. “Shoulder-to-shoulder against fascism”, the crowd chanted. “Society is ready to explode at any moment”, he added.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the reports. “This dark operation aimed at covering the crimes that those trucks carried and the crimes which are continuing to be committed will not be successful”.

Opposition legislator Baris Yarkadas said: “The government does not want any journalist to see what kind of a calamity they have involved Turkey in”.

If found guilty, Dundar, the paper’s editor-in-chief, and Gul its Ankara bureau chief, could face life in prison.

Dundar, speaking before his trial on Thursday, expressed defiance.

In May, Cumhuriyet published several articles containing the photos of what was claimed to be weapons smuggled by the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) into Syria in 2014.

The U.S. Department of State discussed the recent arrest of journalists in Turkey, who had reported on the weapons supply to the Islamic State group from Ankara. Turkey’s interior ministry, however, denied the allegations and said the trucks were in reality conveying humanitarian aid to the Turkmen community in the war-torn country.

The pair are also accused of leaking state secrets “for the purposes of military or political espionage”.

Prosecutors launched an investigation into the journalists after Erdogan threatened legal action against Dundar for publishing the images and said he would not let the issue go.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said that the charges represented yet another blow for press freedom in Turkey, where media critical of Erdogan have been targeted in a crackdown.

Erdogan’s regime even attempted to silence social media, blocking YouTube and Twitter on a number of occasions. Under Mr Erdogan’s rule, the country’s ranking on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index has slid. “What we have done here was a journalistic activity”.

“Freedom of expression is one of the fundamental principles for the European Union (and) … we have raised these concerns repeatedly with the Turkish authorities”, Kocijancic said.

“Events covered in the worldwide media can be completely underreported in Turkey”.

There has been growing concern about deteriorating press freedoms in Turkey under Erdogan and in particular over the numbers of journalists facing legal proceedings on accusations of insulting or criticising top officials.