AFP file picture | The reporter was arrested while reporting in Gaziantep, near the Syrian border.

A French journalist was arrested in Turkey on Friday, his employer said, in a move that comes against a background of journalist detentions in the country following an attempted coup in July.

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Isabelle Roberts, the head of French news website lesjours.fr, said journalist Olivier Bertrand was arrested while reporting in the town of Gaziantep, just north of Turkey’s border with Syria.

Roberts told Reuters that Bertrand had been arrested along with a photographer but that while the photographer had been released, Bertrand had been kept in custody.

“No reason has been given for their arrest,” added Roberts.

Earlier this month, broadcaster NTV said Turkish authorities had ordered the formal arrest pending trial of nine executives and journalists of a leading opposition newspaper.

In September, Turkish authorities detained journalists, a politician and a pollster, and issued arrest warrants for another 105 people over suspected links to a U.S.-based Islamic cleric blamed for the failed coup on July 15.

(REUTERS)

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