A Turkish court in İzmir province on Saturday arrested two journalists from the Kurdish Mezopotamya news agency on terrorism charges, according to the Turkish media.
Ruken Demir and Melike Aydın were detained by police on Nov. 12 along with 10 volunteers for a civil society organization.
Nine of the detainees from the organization were also arrested by the court.
They are accused of aiding the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a terrorist organization that has waged a decades-long bloody insurgency in Turkey’s Southeast.
Dozens of journalists critical of the government were arrested in Turkey in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt in July 2016 under the pretext of an anti-coup fight.
Turkey, where more than 150 journalists and media workers are currently jailed, was ranked 157th among 180 countries in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index released in April by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).