The court ruled that the journalists from the mass-selling Hurriyet newspaper were guilty of "spreading the propaganda of a terrorist organisation" under an anti-terror law, the report said.

Sebati Karakurt, the reporter who conducted the interview at a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) camp in neighbouring northern Iraq, and editor Hasan Kilic were fined 40,000 Turkish lira (32,300 dollars, 22,000 euros) each, while another editor, Necdet Tatlican, was fined 20,000 lira.

The PKK, which has waged a bloody 24-year campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey, is listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community.

The interview, published in October 2004, drew attention at the time for focusing on the daily routines, personal yearnings and feminist ambitions of a group of young women militants at a PKK camp in Iraq's Qandil mountains.

The report, accompanied by pictures of smiling militants playing the guitar, was in stark contrast to the usual coverage of the PKK in the Turkish media, which highlights the group's violent side and rarely holds interviews with militants.

The PKK took up arms in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 44,000 lives.

The European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join, has often criticised the country for restricting free speech and press freedoms.