Turkish police crack down on journalists

SELCAN HACAOGLU AP 03/03/2011 16:31

Turkish police on Thursday detained about 10 people, mostly journalists, in a crackdown on an alleged secularist network accused of conspiring to topple the Islamic-rooted government, reports said. Critics say the case is part of a government assault on press freedom.

Police raided homes of suspects in Ankara and Istanbul, copied hard disks of their computers and seized notes or books that could serve as evidence in the case of the alleged Ergenekon network, NTV television said. Officials allege Ergenekon tried to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist government in 2003.

The raid on Thursday expanded a crackdown on anti-government Oda TV, with police detaining its coordinator Dogan Yurdakul and its Ankara representative, Mumtaz Idil, along with several other journalists, NTV said. The United States expressed concern about press freedom in Turkey after a similar raid last month on Oda TV, prompting denials by Erdogan of any attempt to silence journalists.

The government's opponents said the detentions were an attempt by the government to silence any criticism ahead of the parliamentary elections slated for June.

"The detentions of journalists has just one goal: to silence voices of opposition that criticize the government," said Akif Hamzacelebi, a senior member of the main opposition Republican People's Party.

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