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Turkey widens crackdown on EU free speech

25 April 2016

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"Turkey has detained a Dutch journalist and issued complaints over German and Swedish projects to commemorate the Armenian genocide.

The actions come on top of calls for legal action against Dutch and German comedians, prompting awkward questions for EU leaders.

Ebru Umar, a Dutch journalist of Turkish origin, was arrested while on holiday in Turkey on Saturday (23 April). She was later let go but forbidden to leave the country.

The arrest came after she wrote a story for Dutch daily Metro in which she compared Turkey’s effort to crack down on free speech in Europe to “NSB practices”, referring to the Dutch Nazi party in World War II, and in which she called Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “megalomaniac dictator.”

She also tweeted parts of her story, leading to her arrest in Turkey, where insulting the president is punishable by up to four years in prison."

See the full article: Turkey widens crackdown on EU free speech (EUobserver, link)

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