TURKEY-JOURNALIST/FILE Dutch journalist says she has been arrested again in Turkey

Record ID: 141785

  • Title: TURKEY-JOURNALIST/FILE Dutch journalist says she has been arrested again in Turkey
  • Date: 6th September 2015
  • Summary: DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY (FILE - APRIL 8, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXTERIORS OF DIYARBAKIR COURTHOUSE FREELANCE JOURNALIST FREDERIKE GEERDINK WALKING TO COURTHOUSE SIGN OF DIYARBAKIR COURTHOUSE GEERDINK TALKING TO PEOPLE COURTHOUSE GEERDINK TALKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) DUTCH JOURNALIST, FREDERIKE GEERDINK, SAYING: "Why they opened the case is kind of a mystery to me too, especially after today that even the prosecutor asked for an acquittal. That really surprised me, I really didn't expect that. So that makes you wonder even more like why, why would they open a case like this? Maybe to intimidate me, maybe.. I don't know, it is unclear what is behind it." GEERDINK TALKING TO JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) DUTCH JOURNALIST, FREDERIKE GEERDINK, SAYING: "And it is getting worse again now, also for foreign journalists. It is not... Some people make it seem as if Erdogan is sort of the inventor of the lack of press freedom in Turkey but that is not the case. He didn't invent it. It's only getting worse again now but I think in the history of Republic there hasn't been any press freedom at all in any time and now it is getting worse again, true." JOURNALISTS VARIOUS OF GEERDINK LEAVING COURTHOUSE AND TALKING TO JOURNALISTS
  • Embargoed: 21st September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7ZDZRC0FLCRONXMQEDOL45TF3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A Dutch journalist and author who writes about Turkey's Kurdish minority said she was arrested on Sunday (September 6), the second time this year she has fallen foul of the Turkish authorities.
    "I'm in custody in Yuksekova," Frederike Geerdink said via her Twitter account. She had been travelling with a Kurdish protest group whose members were all also taken into custody, she wrote.
    A report by the Dutch ANP news agency said Geerdink had been arrested on suspicion of "travelling in a forbidden area."
    Turkish authorities could not immediately be reached for comment.
    A freelance journalist based in the mainly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Geerdink was arrested in January and accused of posting messages on social media in favour of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
    Her arrest was decried by human rights and press freedom groups. She was acquitted of propaganda charges in April.
    A spokesman for the Netherlands' foreign ministry said on Sunday the Dutch embassy in Ankara was "monitoring the situation."
    Last week a Turkish court freed two Vice News journalists arrested in the southeast of Turkey on charges of having links to a terrorist organisation. The court freed the two British journalists but ruled to keep their Iraqi fixer in custody pending investigation.
    The arrests caused an uproar from rights groups and raised concerns about Ankara's record on press freedoms at a time when Turkey is cracking down on Kurdish militants and taking on a bigger role in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria.
    Kurdish militants having been clashing almost daily with security forces in southeast Turkey since July, when a two-year ceasefire between the PKK and the government collapsed, with both sides blaming each other.
    Officials say that more than 70 members of the security forces and hundreds of Kurdish militants have been killed.
    Geerdink authored a book in Dutch on Turkey's Kurds and publishes an English language blog called "Kurdish Matters."
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