Dutch journalist detained in Turkey while reporting on Kurds

ISTANBUL, Turkey – A Dutch journalist based in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast was detained Sunday, September 6, while reporting from the region where the military is waging a relentless campaign against Kurdish rebels. 

It is the second time Frederike Geerdink has been arrested by Turkish authorities in 2015.

Geerdink wrote on her Twitter account that she had been detained in the Yuksekova district of Hakkari province and would be questioned by a prosecutor.  

She told Dutch broadcaster NOS that she was reporting on a group of 32 activists forming human shields in one of the areas where the security forces are carrying out operations against the Kurdish rebels.  

“I expected to spend two hours with them (the activists), but when we got there, the road was blocked by the army and I ended up spending two days there,” she said.

She said that the members of the group, who were “not my friends but my sources” were all arrested on their way home. 

She said the authorities had accused her of being in a “forbidden zone.”

Dutch news agency ANP had reported that Geerdink was detained while travelling with HDP members.

But Geerdink made no mention of HDP deputies and told NOS that she was not aware of being in an area that was off-limits.

“There’s no sign anywhere saying you can’t be there,” she said.

A Turkish official told Agence France-Presse Geerdink had been detained for a “breach of security” for entering a zone where permission was needed. 

The Dutch foreign ministry said the Dutch embassy in Ankara was following up on the case with Turkish authorities.

Geerdink, who moved to Turkey in 2006, writes mainly about the country’s Kurdish population. 

She was held briefly in January on charges of “spreading terrorist propaganda” for the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). At her trial in April she was acquitted.

There is growing concern about press freedom in Turkey, with journalists complaining of a squeeze on media critical of the government as Ankara presses its “anti-terror” offensive against the PKK. 

The PKK and the security forces have traded fire daily since July, when a two-year-old ceasefire fell apart.  

Two British reporters working for US-based media outlet Vice News were arrested while reporting in the majority Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in late August and held for a week on terrorism charges. 

The two have since been released and returned to Britain but their Iraqi translator is still being held.

Thomas Bruning, secretary-general of the Dutch Association of Journalists, accused Turkey of trying to muzzle the press.

“The importance of the freedom of the press does not seem to interest this country any more. The situation of Turkish media is worrying but now foreign journalists can also not do their work,” he said. – Rappler.com