Two opposition media journalists in Turkey were arrested in connection with an investigation for " political and military espionage ," state agency Anadolu reported on Monday.
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Ismail Dukel, representative of Tele1 TV in Ankara and Muyesser Yildiz, coordinator of the online news site OdaTV in the Turkish capital, are being interrogated by the anti-terrorist police, according to Anadolu. Tele1 editor Merdan Yanardag confirmed the arrests on Twitter, seeing them as an attempt by the authorities to " issue an ultimatum to the media ".
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Anadolu did not provide further details on the reasons for their arrest, but the pro-government newspaper Sabah said they were suspected of leaking information about Turkey's involvement in Libya and Syria " for the purpose of 'military espionage '. OdaTV's Yildiz is accused of speaking on the phone to a member of the armed forces, also arrested, about Turkish military plans in Libya, where Turkey supports the forces of the recognized Tripoli government by the international community.
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In March, two OdaTV journalists were jailed and face up to nine years in prison for writing an article on the funeral of an alleged intelligence agent killed in Libya. Turkey is regularly accused by NGOs of violating press freedom by arresting journalists and shutting down the media. The country is ranked 157th out of 180 on the press freedom index published by Reporters Without Borders.