Three Kurdish reporters attacked in Istanbul and southeastern province of Mardin

Reporters Without Borders condemns the physical attacks on three Kurdish journalists that took place while they were covering demonstrations by members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) in Istanbul and in Midyat, in the southeastern province of Mardin, on 18 July. The protests were prompted by reports that the bodies of several members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Kurdish armed separatist group, were mutilated after they were killed during military operations in southeastern Turkey. Ismail Eskin and Cagdas Kaplan of the Diha press agency were seriously injured while filming one of the demonstrations in Küçükçekmece, a district on the northern outskirts of Istanbul. According to Diha, they were near a shop that had been set on fire by Molotov cocktails when they were attacked by a group of nationalists, egged on by police. “They are the ones who organised the march,” one of the policemen reportedly said, pointing at them. Diha also accused the police who were at the scene of making no attempt to intervene and stop the attack. Eskin had an arm broken and his skull was fractured in several places. He is currently being tested for brain injuries in Taskim Hospital in Beyoglu. Kaplan also received emergency treatment in the same hospital. Two other Diha journalists were assaulted by nationalist groups in separate attacks a week apart in May. Mehmet Halis Is, the editor of the local weekly Midyat Habuyr and a correspondent of the national news agency Dohan (DHA), was accosted by a plain-clothes policeman while filming BDP activists staging a sit-in to protest against the arrests of four other demonstrators. “Why are you filming this,” the policeman said, covering the lens of his camera with his hand. Is said to the Reporters Without Borders Turkey correspondent he would file a complaint.