Three men aged in their twenties have been placed under arrest and sent to prison on charges of attempted murder in connection with a July 26 physical assault on Corlu Press Members Association chairman Erdal Ozcan.

The three suspects identified by their initials A.D. (26), A.A (24) and U.C. (23) were detained by the police after attacking Ozcan with wooden clubs while he walked towards his house in the Corlu township of Tekirdag.

While the cause of the attack is not known, Ozcan is an accredited journalist working for the local Devrim newspaper and the Corlu representative of the mass circulation daily Hurriyet as well as Dogan News Agency.

Ozcan was most recently responsible for a series of news reports over the past two months related to changes in the development and construction procedures of the Corlu Municipality.

The newsman was saved from his assailants by local citizens and taken to the Corlu State Hospital where he was treated for his injuries.

Turkey's Press Council condemned the attack on Erdal Ozcan with its General Secretary Gokalp Yazir referring to the assault as "crude and primitive".

Yazir said it was sad to witness such attacks on communication freedom and called for measures to be taken to prevent such occurrences in the future. (EO/II/YE)