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Turkish court arrests two British Vice News journalists for 'terror offences' | Turkish court arrests two British Vice News journalists for 'terror offences' |
(35 minutes later) | |
Two British reporters and a translator have been formally charged by a Turkish court with "working on behalf of a terrorist organisation". | |
Vice News journalists Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury were detained by police as they filmed in the south-east region of Diyarbakir on Thursday. | |
Their lawyer told the BBC police interrogated them about alleged links to Islamic State and Kurdish militants. | |
They deny the charges, which Vice News calls "baseless and alarmingly false". | |
The trio had been in the region filming clashes between police and Kurdish militants, Vice News said. | |
Violent exchanges between security forces and youths from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have erupted in recent days. Turkey has limited journalists' access to the region. | |
'Not optimistic' | |
The journalists' lawyer said the trio were detained at their hotel and initially accused of filming a military base without permission. | |
Their camera and computers were seized and investigated, he said. | |
They were then asked questions about whether they had been collaborating with the PKK or the so-called Islamic State group, before being formally arrested by a local court. They have denied all charges. | |
BBC Istanbul correspondent Selin Girit said the group now had seven days to appeal, but their lawyer was "not optimistic" that the charges would be dropped. | |
She said Turkey had a reputation for detaining journalists, but it was unusual for foreign reporters not to be quickly released or deported. | |
Kevin Sutcliffe, Vice News's head of news programming in Europe, said the Turkish government had levelled "baseless and alarmingly false charges" in an attempt to intimidate and censor its coverage. | |
"Vice News condemns in the strongest possible terms the Turkish government's attempts to silence our reporters who have been providing vital coverage from the region," he said. | |
No further court dates have yet been set. |