Nationalist MP David Casa has welcomed a decision by a Turkish court dismissing action against a journalist who had been facing a potential 13-month jail term for reporting how the Paradise Paper showed Turkish government officials having stashed funds outside the country. 

Mr Casa said these had been worrying cases, not least because those who levelled the charges against  Pelin Ünker admitted that her reporting was not wrong.

The articles were about relatives of the Speaker of the House Binali Yildirim. 

In March similar cases over articles involving the son-in-law of Turkish President Erdoğan were also dropped. 

Mr Casa recalled meeting the journalist in Istanbul in February and hosting her in Malta where she was present for a vigil in memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Last month he presented a declaration of support signed by 65 MEPs to the Turkish ambassador in Malta. 

Mr Casa said press freedom was fundamental for democracy and one could not close an eye when investigative journalists were persecuted for doing their work.  

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