Turkish Thug
The Turkish prime minister, Recip Erdogan, has a well justified reputation as a bit of a thug and just the other week one of his trusted advisers was caught on camera in the process of giving a defenceless protester a good kicking while he was on the ground being restrained by two armed soldiers.
Now to make matters worse PM Erdogan then singled out a member of the international press corps, CNN's Ivan Watson, for special criticism calling him a 'flunky' and an 'agent' which is code language for 'spy' and an incitement to violence, if you ask me.
Here's the incident captured live on CNN's own cameras as a bunch of goons drag the TV crew away for filming what the Turkish police are doing.
Turkish PM says CNN correspondent is an agent after police harass him on air
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attacks foreign media days after Ivan Watson is interrupted during live broadcast on Istanbul protests
Reuters in Istanbul
Ivan Watson, CNN's Turkey correspondent, is detained in Taksim Square on Saturday. Photograph: Selcuk Bulent/AP
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has called the CNN correspondent Ivan Watson a "flunky" and an agent for his coverage of anti-government protests days after police harassed him live on air.
Istanbul police interrupted a live CNN International broadcast on Saturday and briefly held Watson, the news broadcaster's long-time Istanbul correspondent. He was reporting on the first anniversary of Turkey's biggest anti-government protests in decades.
Erdoğan has repeatedly accused the foreign media and governments of having a hand in the protests, which have erupted sporadically but with far smaller numbers since last June. He also blames an international conspiracy for a graft scandal that implicated his inner circle in December.
Saturday's demonstrations were muted, with a heavy police presence at Taksim Square, where last year's protests began, to prevent any unrest. They fired teargas and water cannon to disperse 1,000 or so protesters.
"The international media that came to Istanbul and made exaggerated, provocative calls were licking their paws. One of them was that CNN flunky," Erdogan told members of his AK party in parliament in a speech aired live by several channels.
"He was caught red-handed. These people have nothing to do with a free, impartial, independent press. These people are literally executing their duties as agents. That's why they are here."
Erdoğan recalled CNN's hours-long live coverage of the 2013 protests in Istanbul's central Taksim Square and said it was aimed at fomenting unrest.
At the time, hundreds of thousands of people occupied Taksim for two weeks to protest against the government, following plans by Erdoğan to raze a park in Istanbul to make space for a mall.
"We stand unequivocally by our reporting from Turkey, which has been and continues to be fair, factual and impartial," said a spokesperson for CNN, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
On Saturday, police shoved and kicked Watson, then dragged him off camera while he spoke during a live broadcast from Taksim. Watson is seen showing his Turkish press accreditation.
"Turkish police detained me and my crew in the middle of a live report in Taksim Square. One officer kneed me in the butt," Watson tweeted on Saturday.
"Turkish police released CNN team after half an hour. Officer apologised for another officer who kneed me while I was being detained," he tweeted 30 minutes later.
A government official said on Saturday that the prime minister's office had phoned Watson to inquire about his situation to ensure he was safe and said he was only held for a few minutes because he was not carrying his passport.
Groups including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch have expressed worries about the climate for journalists in Turkey.
Aide-de-Camp (17 May 2014)
I once wrote that Alistair Campbell (Tony Blair's press secretary) would have swum the English Channel with an anvil on his back, if such a deed was necessary to fulfil his role as the Prime Minister's aide-de-camp.
But this is as nothing compared to the lengths that some people are prepared to go to including Yusuf Yerkel who is seen here sticking the boot into a protester during a visit to the site of the Soma mining disaster in the western Turkey.
Now the security people seem to have the situation under control, but Yusuf is clearly the kind of person who leaves nothing to chance.
Yusuf Yerkel, by the way, is a special advisor to the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan.
Sorry for your loss, but.... (16 May 2014)
Until yesterday that is when he shot himself in both feet, politically speaking,while visiting the site of the Soma mining disaster where at least 282 Turkish miners lost their lives in a tragic underground accident.
Because after commiserating with the locals saying the right things such as 'Sorry for your loss', the Prime Minister Erdogan went on to play down the significance of the incident - by comparing Soma to other terrible mining disasters which have taken place in other countries over the years, including Britain.
Just imagine that instead of capturing the national mood by describing Princess Diana as the 'People's Princess' Tony Blair had said - "Well it's a terrible tragedy, but as everyone knows accidents happen all the time!"
But this is not, of course, what people expect to hear when they are mourning for their loved ones, many of whom are still lost down the mine and so there has been an understandably angry reaction to what Prime Minister Erdogan had to say.
