Without Prosecution, Turkey Jails 16 Kurdish Journalists On Propaganda Charges

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JAKARTA - A Turkish court has jailed while awaiting trial 16 Kurdish journalists and media workers who were arrested after being detained last week on charges of spreading terrorist propaganda.

The Association for Media and Legal Studies and local media said they had been detained for eight days in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir without being formally charged. Prosecutors twice asked for an extension of time to file charges, they reported.

"The other five journalists who were detained on June 8 are not imprisoned," Demiroren and other Turkish media said.

Turkey has imprisoned more journalists than most other countries over the past decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Several media groups condemned last week's detentions as "cruel".

Among those detained were Serdar Altan, deputy chairman of the Journalists' Association Dicle Firat, Jin News head Safiye Alagas, and Mezopotamya news agency editor Aziz Oruc.

Police in Diyarbaki, a predominantly Kurdish city, detained 21 journalists on charges of making propaganda for a terrorist organization in preparation for television broadcasts broadcast from Belgium and Britain, the Demiroren news agency reported.

Demiroren quoted police sources as saying police were investigating the "press committee" of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PPK) militant group. The court in Diyarbakir declined to comment.

On Monday, 837 journalists and 62 media organizations issued statements in support of their detained colleagues. They condemned the detentions following the police raids as "a blow to press freedom".

The statement called on the Turkish opposition -- which they said "claims to uphold law, justice, equality, freedom and democracy" -- to show solidarity with them.

The statement also called on the court "not to become an instrument of government anarchy and tyranny".

President Tayyip Erdogan's government says the court is independent. Turkey is ranked 149th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which describes Turkey as a country that "uses all possible means to quell criticism".