Turkish authorities have arrested three prominent press freedom campaigners, including the local representative of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), on charges of spreading “terrorist propaganda”, according to human rights groups.
In addition to RSF representative Erol Onderoglu, author Ahmet Nesin and Sebnem Korur Fincanci, president of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, were also arrested on Monday.
A court ordered they be held in pre-trial detention after they guest-edited a newspaper on Kurdish issues and campaigned against efforts to censor it, said RSF and another group, EuroMed Rights.
Onderoglu was arrested for his work on three articles about security operations in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast and infighting among security forces which appeared in the May 18 edition of the Ozgur Gundem magazine, said Johann Bihr from RSF.
Bihr described Onderoglu, who had worked for RSF for two decades, as a “victim of the abuses he always denounced”. [READ THE ARTICLE]