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Charges Against Journalists Dim the Democratic Glow in Turkey

(New York Times) Dan Bilefsky and Sebnem Arsu - Turkish journalist Nedim Sener, who has spent nearly 20 years exposing government corruption, is among 13 defendants who appeared in state court this week in Istanbul on charges related to abetting a terrorist organization, in what human rights groups call a political purge of the governing party's critics. At a time when Washington and Europe are praising Turkey as the model of Muslim democracy for the Arab world, Turkish human rights advocates say the crackdown is part of an attempt by the government of Prime Minister Erdogan to repress freedom of the press through a mixture of intimidation, arrests and financial machinations, including the sale in 2008 of a leading newspaper and a television station to a company linked to the prime minister's son-in-law. There are now 97 members of the news media in jail in Turkey, a figure that rights groups say exceeds the number detained in China.
2012-01-06 00:00:00
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