So When Is a Journalist Considered a Terrorist?

An Istanbul court on April 17 arraigned Adil Demirci, a Turkish-German dual national and reporter for the socialist Etkin News Agency (ETHA), on charges of "being a member of a [terrorist] organization" and "making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization," according to the German news agency Deutsche Welle. In the same case, the court on April 19 arraigned an ETHA editor, Semiha Şahin, and agency reporter, Pınar Gayıp, on terrorism-related charges, their employer reported.
Authorities are holding Şahin, Gayıp, and Demirci, who was on vacation in Turkey at the time of his arrest, in government detention while they await trial, according to the news website Bianet.
In recent developments the persons in question have been transferred from their prison holding cells to house arrest accourding to new reports from CPJ:
A court on June 13 transferred two journalists from the leftist Etkin News Agency (ETHA), from prison to house arrest while they await the outcome of their trial on terrorism charges, the independent news website Bianet reported. Pınar Gayıp, a reporter, and Semiha Şahin, an editor, were arrested pending trial in April 2018and first appeared in court in September 2018, CPJ has documented.
American journalists should pay attention to the the plight foreign news agencies and the persecution they suffer based on exposure of the ills of the societies they cover. Visiting journalists should also be aware that they are not necessarily safe as they investigate and reveal their findings. Terrorism charges?! Really though...

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