Journalists covering the ongoing protests sparked in the wake of the operations against İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality and district municipalities have been battered and detained by police and that their accounts have been blocked

CANSU PİŞKİN, ISTANBUL

Eleven journalists covering the protests in İstanbul and İzmir following the imprisonment of İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on 23 March were detained in police raids in the early hours of 24 March.

AFP photo reporter Yasin Akgül, NOW TV reporter Ali Onur Tosun, photojournalist Bülent Kılıç, journalist Zeynep Kuray, journalist Hayri Tunç, İBB photojournalist Kurtuluş Arı and Bakırköy Municipality photojournalist Gökhan Kam were detained in İstanbul, while BirGün writer Barış İnce, journalist Yağız Barut and photojournalist Murat Kocabaş was detained in İzmir.

Sendika.org reporter Zişan Gür was detained last night during the police intervention against the demonstrations in İstanbul.

Journalist Emre Orman's house was also reportedly raided in the morning, but since Orman was not at home, he was not detained.

The operation against journalists was organized on charges of “violating the Law No. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations.”

Journalists were beaten while covering the protests

In addition to the detentions, journalists' freedom of work was also violated.

BirGün reporters Ebru Çelik and Deniz Güngör were kicked and beaten with batons by the police while covering the protests in Saraçhane on the night of 23 March.

Journalist Tansel Can, who was covering the protests in Turkey for the Russian news TV channel RT, was also targeted and beaten by a large number of police officers and pepper sprayed in the face at close range while trying to record the police violence against protesters in Saraçhane. Can's treatment at the hospital continues.

Journalists' X accounts blocked

After İmamoğlu was imprisoned pending trial, access to many accounts on the X platform were blocked. Many accounts, including those of civil society organizations and student solidarity groups, were suspended by X.

Access to the X account of journalist Emre Orman, against whom a detention warrant was issued, was also blocked on 22 March. Orman wrote, “My account was blocked in Turkey for sharing street protests.”

Detained journalist Zeynep Kuray's X account was also blocked today (24 March.)