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Turkey briefly detains Dutch journalist on 'terror' charge

The journalist's detention, which ended after a few hours, comes as Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan denies cracking down on the media. He claims the Turkish press is as free as any in Europe.

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Frederike Geerdink, a Dutch journalist, tweeted her detention by Turkish police on terrorism-related charges. She was later released.
  • By Reuters

| DIYARBAKIR, Turkey

Turkish police briefly detained a Dutch reporter on terrorism-related charges on Tuesday, highlighting accusations of media persecution on a day President Tayyip Erdogan declared that Turkish journalists enjoyed more freedom than any in Europe.

Frederike Geerdink, based in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, tweeted that police had searched her home and she was being detained for "propaganda for a terrorist organization." The Dutch foreign minister, visiting Ankara, said he was shocked.

Ms. Geerdink tweeted three hours later that she had been freed after giving a statement to police. The head of the bar association in Diyarbakir told Reuters the case was connected to Geerdink's tweets and other issues but did not elaborate.

Geerdink reports for Dutch radio and newspapers including Het Parool in the Netherlands and Britain's Independent.

President Erdogan rejected what he called a false portrayal of Turkey in Western media as increasingly undemocratic under his 12-year-old rule.

"There is an attempt to tarnish Turkey by using press freedom when it is in fact measures taken against terrorism," Erdogan said in a speech to Turkish ambassadors that coincided with Geerdink's detention.

"I dispute this...Nowhere in Europe or in other countries is there a media that is as free as the press in Turkey."

Dutch minister 'shocked'

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, who is due to meet his counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, said on Twitter: "Shocked at the arrest of @fgeerdink. Will bring this up personally with my colleague Cavusoglu here in Ankara."

Though the detention of a foreign journalist is rare in Turkey, Turkish reporters and editors are frequently at risk of arrest for things they write or say.

Last week, two journalists were detained for tweets they sent that were critical of Turkish authorities, and last month the editor in chief of an opposition newspaper was charged with belonging to a terrorist organization.

The European Union, which Turkey aspires to join, has said harassment of the press violates its human rights criteria.

Turkey ranked 154 out of 180 in press-freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders' 2014 World Press Freedom Index.

Geerdink, a freelancer based in Turkey since 2006, is the author of "De jongens zijn dood" ("The Boys Are Dead"), a book published last year that examines the 2011 bombing by Turkish military planes that killed 35 Kurdish civilians.

Turkey is negotiating an end to a three-decade conflict with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which declared a ceasefire in 2013, and has eased restrictions on media coverage of issues including language rights and political representation.

(Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul, Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir, Thomas Escritt in Amsterdam; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Ralph Boulton)

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