Turkey Imprisons Prominent Journalist

The Anadolu Agency reported that "a Turkish court sentenced the editor-in-chief of an opposition television channel to jail until his trial on charges of propaganda for a terrorist organization." Merdan Yanardağ was arrested by police on Monday, accused of praising criminals and promoting a "terrorist" organization after he criticized the isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who is serving a prison sentence. Yanardağ stated in a television program days ago: "The isolation of Abdullah Öcalan is illegal and must be ended," and denied any wrongdoing since then. Turkish special forces arrested Öcalan in Kenya in 1999, and he has been imprisoned on an island south of Istanbul since then. The PKK, founded by Öcalan, launched an insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984. Turkey and its Western allies classify the PKK as a terrorist organization. More than 40,000 people have died in the conflict that continued after Öcalan's imprisonment. The Turkish broadcasting regulatory authority has also opened an investigation into the opposition channel Tele 1 that aired Yanardağ's remarks.