Story highlights Two British journalists and their guide, all working for Vice News, are charged in Turkey

They're accused of "knowingly and willfully helping the armed terrorist organization," a semiofficial news agency reports

Vice News says the journalists were unjustly detained; rights groups call for their immediate release

Istanbul (CNN) A Turkish court has charged two Vice News journalists and their "fixer" with a terrorism offense, several days after they were detained in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, a heavily Kurdish area.

The three, held last Thursday, were charged late Monday with "knowingly and willfully helping the armed terrorist organization without being a part of its hierarchical structure," according to Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu news agency. It didn't name the organization they were allegedly aiding.

The reporters' treatment has raised questions about the Turkish government's commitment to freedom of expression.

Vice named the two British journalists as Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury but did not identify the fixer -- a journalist acting as a translator and guide.

However, he was named by Anadolu as Mohammed Ismael Rasool.

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