Turkey Arrests Journalists It Ties to Outlawed Group

Twenty-six journalists were among the suspects arrested in a crackdown on an organization tied to Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a media watchdog said, heightening criticism of the country's record on press freedom.

If the number is confirmed, the arrests would bring the number of journalists in Turkish jails to more than 90, one of the highest detention numbers for journalists in the world, the Bianet media-rights monitoring group said. The journalists, most of them working for Kurdish newspapers and agencies, were arrested as part of an operation against the Kurdistan Communities Union, or KCK, an umbrella organization for Kurdish nationalist groups that the government says acts as the urban wing of the PKK.