Turkey has arrested seven journalists as an investigation is in process into an alleged secularist network accused of conspiring to topple the Islamic-rooted government. The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade reports in his blog that seven secularist journalists have been arrested by Turkish authorities as part of an investigation into an ‘alleged plot to overthrow the Turkish government.’ Those arrested include Nedim Sener, ‘named last year as an International Press Institute (IP) world press freedom hero’, and Professor Yalçın Küçük, described as a ‘prominent critic’ of the government.
The European Commission is all of a sudden “deeply concerned” about the detention of their subversive terrorists working under the disguise of "journalists". Stefan Fuele, a Commissioner from the body, is quoted as saying that Turkey:
‘urgently needs to amend its legal framework to improve the exercise of freedom of the press in practice and in a significant manner’.
The arrests come after Turkish freedom of speech was recently praised by a prominent Tunisian Islamist. According to the Turkish Hurriyet, Rached Ghannouchi, the head of the ‘Ennahda’ party, spoke at the funeral of former Turkish Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, where he:
‘touched on the freedom of the press, mentioning at least once that Turkey’s free press is an inspiration to the Arab world.’
Hurriyet notes that Ghannouchi made his remarks ‘in the Istanbul headquarters of the Humanitarian Relief Foundation [IHH]’.
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