The release of two prominent Turkish journalists following a ruling by Turkey's top court that their rights had been violated is a "clear defeat" for President Tayyip Erdogan, one of the journalists, Can Dundar, said on Tuesday.

Dundar, the editor-in-chief of the secularist opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet and his colleague Erdem Gul were freed on Friday after the constitutional court ruled that their detentions had violated their rights.

The two were arrested in November after the publication of video footage purporting to show the stage intelligence agency helping send weapons to Syria. The case has drawn international condemnation and revived concern about media freedom in Turkey.

Dundar, who was speaking at a news conference in Istanbul, said he would defy an order to surrender his passport and would attempt to travel overseas.