ANKARA
Turkish politicians and global media rights groups have strongly condemned the mistreatment of an Anadolu Agency journalist by police in the riot-hit American town of Ferguson.
Bilgin Sasmaz was threatened, manhandled and detained for five hours while covering disturbances in the St Louis, Missouri, suburb on Tuesday. A police officer has been suspended from duty in relation to the incident.
"This is a case of mistreatment and detention of a journalist trying to do his duty, and undoubtedly an unacceptable attitude. We condemn this," Turkish Deputy PM Bulent Arinc told the Anadolu Agency Thursday.
Echoing the condemnation, Suleyman Soylu, deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party, said: "We do not approve of such treatment of a correspondent, especially one from Turkey. There is a restriction on a basic right, which is the right to information and press freedom."
Chairman of the Turkish Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights Ayhan Sefer Ustun said Thursday: "Nobody in the U.S. should now say that press freedom is sacred. The U.S. should look to itself before giving advice to its neighbors and democratic countries on press freedom because it failed that exam."
The Turkish media union, Medya-Is, also denounced the police actions.
In a statement, Medya-Is Chairman Gursel Eser said that after the detention and release of several other journalists including German reporters Ansgar Graw, Frank Herrmann, Getty Images photojournalist Scott Olson, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery, Ryan J. Reilly from Huffington Post, Sasmaz faced with the same treatment.
Steven M. Ellis, a senior adviser at the International Press Institute, called the detention of Sasmaz "unacceptable" and said the U.S. had set a "bad example to the countries expected to show respect to press freedom"
He added: "The footage we saw in Ferguson makes us question the loyalty of state institutions to this freedom. Also, it unfortunately may give an example for other regimes on weakening press freedom."
Camille Soulier of Journalists Without Borders condemned Sasmaz’s mistreatment and called for a swift investigation into the incident.
Sarah Kavanagh, a spokeswoman at the National Union of Journalists in Britain, said the group was "shocked" by Sasmaz’s treatment.
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