Ankara: Turkey was on Saturday holding 17 journalists on charges of “terror group” membership. Turkey has detained more than 18,000 people over the attempted putsch which has been blamed on the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen – a charge he denies.
Seventeen journalists remanded in custody by an Istanbul court over links to Gulen woke up in jails across the city on Saturday as international concern grows over the targeting of reporters in the wake of the putsch.
Twenty-one journalists had appeared before a judge in hearings lasting until midnight on Friday. Four were then freed but 17 were placed under pre-trial arrest, charged with “membership of a terror group”, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
Those held include the veteran journalist Nazli Ilicak as well as the former correspondent for the pro-Gulen Zaman daily Hanim Busra Erdal.
Among those freed was prominent commentator Bulent Mumay who was given a rapturous welcome by supporters.
“I could never have imagined being accused of such a thing. It was a madness. It’s not right to arrest journalists – this country should not make the same mistakes again,” Mumay said, quoted by the Dogan news agency.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu defended the detention of reporters, saying it was necessary to distinguish between coup plotters and those “who are engaged in real journalism”.
