Turkish Journalists Jailed for Report on Intel Officer’s Funeral

(Bloomberg) -- A court in Istanbul ordered the arrest of the news director and a reporter at the OdaTV website for disclosing the identity of an intelligence officer allegedly killed in Libya.

The website carried a story about the officer’s funeral in the western city of Manisa, including photos.

News director Baris Terkoglu and reporter Hulya Kilinc could face up to nine years in prison for violating a regulation prohibiting the disclosure of the identities of national intelligence officers and their families, or their operations, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Terkoglu, 37, blamed the arrests on a “gang” operating within the government, the OdaTV website said.

Terkoglu was arrested in 2011 and spent 19 months in jail in connection with an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the AK Party government then led by now-President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Hundreds of people arrested at the time were freed, and the case collapsed following the July 2016 failed coup. Today, many judges and prosecutors who oversaw the case are under arrest or are fugitives, charged with being followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

A total of 47 reporters are under arrest in Turkey, according to a December report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. That makes the nation the second-biggest jailer of journalists worldwide, following China.

To contact the reporter on this story: Taylan Bilgic in Istanbul at tbilgic2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Paul Abelsky

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