Israel Matzav

Turkey arresting journalists

Turkey arrested ten journalists on Thursday and charged them with trying to overthrow the government.

Ten journalists and writers, including Sik and Sener, were arrested on Thursday after police raided their homes at dawn. Three other journalists were arrested two weeks ago.

All of them are known to be critical of the government.

The case comes at a sensitive time.

Erdogan's AK Party is tipped to easily win a third consecutive term in parliamentary elections in June.

Erdogan has said the arrests had nothing to do with the government but the case threatens to become an election issue.

Thousands of people, many of them journalists, marched in Ankara and Istanbul on Friday in response to the detentions and chanted anti-government slogans.

'Human Rights Watch' has called for the release of two of the journalists.

"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 Human Rights Watch.

"It raises concerns that what is now under investigation is critical reporting rather than coup plots."

Turkey is looking more Islamist and less Western by the day. And that EU admission is looking farther and farther away than ever.

Labels: European Union, Islamist, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:58 AM