Seven journalists have been arrested by police investigating an alleged plot to overthrow the Turkish government.

They were among 10 people detained as part of an official inquiry into Ergenekon, an ultra-nationalist clandestine group accused of trying to launch a coup against the government headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Among those under arrest is Nedim Sener, named last year as an International Press Institute (IP) world press freedom hero. He works for the daily newspaper Milliyet.

According to Bianet, journalist and writer Nedim Sener was taken into police custody after both his home in Bakirkoy (Istanbul) and his car had been searched. When he was made to enter the police vehicle, he shouted "For Hrant, for justice", referring to Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink who was killed in 2007. In a writing published in the Posta newspaper on February 17, Sener wrote, "They said 'it's your turn now'".

Sener is facing 28 years in prison in a trial on his book "The Dink murder and the Intelligence lies". In his latest book entitled "Red Friday, who broke Dink's pen?" Sener reveals secret information on the murder of journalist Dink, founder of the Armenian Agos newspaper. The documents published in the book prove that the MIT and the Police had notice of the preceding death threats against Dink.