Rights group slams arrest of Turkish journalists

ANKARA, March 5, 2011 (AFP) - A human rights group condemnned Saturday the recent arrest of journalists in Turkey and urged the country to show its commitment to press freedom as it seeks European Union membership.

Ten people, most of them well-known journalists, were placed in preventive detention Thursday on suspicion of an alleged plot against the Islamist-rooted government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Those arrested include Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener, two prominent journalists known for critical reporting on the Turkish criminal justice system and police, Human Rights Watch said.

Sik is co-author of a book about the investigations and trials in the Ergenekon case - named after an organisation allegedly at the centre of a conspiracy. He had been working on a book about the police.

Sener had written a book on the murder of Hrant Dink, a well-known journalist and human rights defender, and the investigation into his killing.

“In the absence of evidence that the police have credible reason to think Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener are responsible for wrongdoing, their arrests are a disturbing development,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researcher at HRW.

“It raises concerns that what is now under investigation is critical reporting rather than coup plots.”The opposition and a substantial part of the media say the supposed conspiracy, which has led to the incarceration of hundreds of opposition figures since 2007, is a means of stifling all political dissent in Turkey.

After the latest wave of arrests the European Union and the United States expressed concern about press freedom in Turkey. Most of the journalists detained Thursday are critics of the Turkish government. The law allows them to be questioned for four days before they are taken to court to be freed or charged.

Three other journalists were arrested and charged two weeks ago

In three months time elections are to be held in Turkey at which Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) will seek a third term.

Erdogan refused Friday any government intervention in an “independent judicial system.”Thousands of people, many of them journalists turned out Friday in Istanbul and Ankara to condemn the arrests.


(2011-3-6/Times Online)