Dutch journalist charged with 'terror propaganda' in Turkey

Turkish authorities briefly detained Frederike Geerdink last month after raiding her home in the Kurdish-majority southeastern city of Diyarbakir.

Geerdink is accused of posting messages on social media in favour of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), including sharing the group’s flags, the private Dogan news agency reported, citing the indictment.

Geerdink wrote on her Twitter account that she was not yet in a position to confirm the report.

Geerdink, who moved to Turkey in 2006, has been based in Diyarbakir since 2012 and specialises in writing about the Kurds as well as the separatist PKK, which is banned by Turkey as a terrorist group.

Her detention sparked an outcry among Turkey’s Western allies, already concerned over what they see as an erosion of media freedom in the country under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey was the world’s top jailer of journalists in 2012 and 2013, according to the international Committee to Protect Journalists, before improving to tenth place in 2014, although Erdogan insists his country has “the freest press in the world.”-AFP