Media watchdog group urges Turkey to free French journalist

PARIS - The Associated Press

AFP photo

A media watchdog group is urging the immediate release of a French freelance journalist detained in Turkey on suspicion of terrorism while reporting on the Turkey-Iraq border.

A Turkish security source said photographs of the journalist with the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters had been found on his laptop.

Reporters Without Borders held a demonstration in support of Loup Bureau outside a Paris district’s town hall on Aug. 24.

The 27-year-old Bureau has been detained since July 26.

Bureau is accused of “aiding and assisting a terrorist organization.” 

The French Foreign Ministry said on Aug. 24 that it is continuing to make efforts with Turkish authorities to help Bureau.

The reporter’s father, Loic Bureau, told reporters he was able to speak to his son on the phone and found him “tired” and “a little discouraged.”

Turkey is ranked 155th out of 180 countries in a World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.