The International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of editors, media executives and journalists for press freedom, today called on the government of Turkey to immediately release nine journalists who were arrested in a country-wide crackdown this week.

On Tuesday, August 20, police arrested six journalists who were covering protests against the dismissal of municipal mayors of the three Kurdish-majority cities of Diyarbakır, Mardin and Van. On the same day, Ayşegül Tözeren a writer and columnist for the newspaper Evrensel, was detained by police in Istanbul.