Turkish journalists stand trial on terrorism charges

More than a dozen journalists from Turkey's leading secular newspaper are on trial in Istanbul charged with aiding a terrorist organisation.

They are accused of having links to Fethullah Gulen, the cleric who has been accused of orchestrating last year's failed coup, as well as the Kurdistan workers party the PKK.

However, human rights groups argue the trial is politically motivated and part of a wider assault on press freedom by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP.

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Columnist Kadri Gursel told the court yesterday: "I am not here because I knowingly and willingly helped a terrorist organisation, but because I am an independent, questioning and critical journalist."

He and his 16 colleagues - reporters, cartoonists and editors from the Cumhuriyet newspaper - face between seven and 43 years in prison if found guilty.

The trial has become "a symbol of the collapse of press freedom" in Turkey, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Johahn Bihr, of Reporters Without Borders, told CNN: "Cumhuriyet newspaper is one of the few remaining independent media outlets. That's why they are on trial."

Turkey's jails currently hold more than 150 journalists, most on terror-related charges.

However, President Erdogan told the BBC there were only two journalists behind bars. "The rest are either terrorists, or they were carrying guns, or they robbed ATM machines," he said.