Turkey: Ten pro-Kurdish media journalists arrested

Ten pro-Kurdish media journalists were arrested today in six Turkish provinces, a week after a law went into effect punishing the spread of fake news with prison terms, the Journalists’ Union of Turkey said.

“Ten of our colleagues were arrested during operations in Ankara, Istanbul, Van, Diyarbakir, Urfa and Mardin,” the TGS union said on its Twitter account, without specifying the reasons for the arrests.

The arrested journalists, four of whom are women, work for the pro-Kurdish news agencies Mezopotamya and Jinnews, according to the journalists’ union.

The Mesopotamya Agency confirmed that seven of his journalists were arrested.

Sixteen Turkish journalists were in prison at the end of June for “participation in a terrorist organization” in Diyarbakir, in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Turkey adopted a disinformation law in mid-October, which has drawn much criticism. Eight months before the general election, this law was punishingAnyone who is accused of spreading “false or deceptive information” can be imprisoned for up to three years.

Non-governmental organizations regularly report the erosion of freedom of the press in Turkey.