Seventeen journalists from prominent Turkish opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet are on trial charged with aiding a terrorist organisation.

The journalists, among some 150 believed to be currently imprisoned in the country, were detained for nine months ahead of the trial, which began yesterday – also Turkish press freedom day.

They are accused of supporting Fethullah Gulen, a political opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now in exile in the US, who is blamed for last year’s failed coup attempt against the government.