Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> News and Comment >> BBC Journalists in Turkey http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1372082113 Message started by Administrator on Jun 24^th, 2013, 1:56pm

Title: BBC Journalists in Turkey
Post by Administrator on Jun 24^th, 2013, 1:56pm

CNN reports here,

"The drama began Sunday when Ibrahim Melih Gokcek, the man who has been mayor of Turkey's capital for more than a decade, accused a reporter from the BBC's Turkish service of being a foreign agent.
"Who is @selingirit? BBC's reporter in Turkey," Gokcek wrote in a series of English-language tweets.
"Led by England, they are trying to collapse our economy via agents hired, both nationally and internationally. They are dreaming for Turkey to be the 'Sick man of Europe' once again. Here is a concrete proof."

The CNN report continues with a description of the "Twitter" exchange.

Peter Horrocks issued a BBC statement here.

"The BBC is very concerned by the continued campaign of the Turkish authorities to discredit the BBC and intimidate its journalists.

A large number of threatening messages have been sent to one of our reporters, who was named and attacked on social media by the Mayor of Ankara for her coverage of the current protests.

The BBC and all its journalists are committed to providing impartial and independent journalism. It is unacceptable for our journalists to be directly targeted in this way. There are established procedures for making comments and complaints about BBC output and we call on the Turkish authorities to use these proper channels.

BBC Press Office"

Illustrating the new pressures on BBC journalists 'in the field'.