ANKARA — A Dutch journalist has gone on trial in Turkey on charges of engaging in propaganda on behalf of the banned Kurdish rebel group on social media. Freelance journalist Frederike Geerdink Geerdink said on Twitter that the prosecutor recommended her acquittal at the opening hearing of her trial in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir on Wednesday. The trial was adjourned until April 13 when the court was expected to deliver its verdict. Geerdink was detained for questioning in January and then charged with making “propaganda of a terrorist organization” in a series of postings on Twitter. Her prosecution has been widely criticized by media advocacy groups. Several journalists, including foreigners, were tried in the 1990s on charges of terrorist propaganda, but such trials had become rare in recent years. — AP
