Turkey: 72 Journalists Forced Out for Covering Protests, Union Says
The main opposition leader accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday of cowing local news media into self-censorship after a journalists’ group said dozens of reporters had been fired for their coverage of antigovernment protests. The Turkish Journalists Union said at least 72 journalists had been fired or forced to take leave or had resigned in the past six weeks since the start of the unrest. “We are now facing a new period where the media is controlled by the government and the police and where most media bosses take orders from political authorities,†said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the CHP party. According to a report by his party, 64 journalists have been imprisoned. The government says most of them have been detained for serious crimes, like membership in an armed terrorist group, that are not reated to journalism.
A version of this brief appeared in print on July 24, 2013, on page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Turkey: 72 Journalists Forced Out For Covering Protests, Union Says.
