JINHA

AMED - Journalist Canan Altıntaş was in the midst of covering an armed attack on civilians when she herself became the target of the attacks. Colleagues who visited Canan in the hospital condemned the attacks on press freedom with a sit-in.

On Tuesday, Aytaç Baran, the head of an association known for its links to the extreme Islamist party Hüda-Par was shot in front of his house in Diyarbakır. In the wake of the attack, an unknown group opened fire on and roamed through the streets with cleavers and clubs while police did not nothing to stop them. Canan Altıntaş, a reporter for Doğan News Agency, was shooting footage of the events when she herself was attacked along with her colleagues Serdar Sunar and Burak Emek.

Veysi İpek, of the Journalists Assocation of the Southeast, visited Canan and her colleagues in the hospital. He noted that many journalists have been wounded or killed in the course of doing their job.

"Unfortunately, just as our colleagues were making news that would build a bridge between the peoples of Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the Middle East, dark forces started to work again," said Veysi. He said there had been a number of threats and attacks against journalists. Veysi called on the authorities to fulfill their duties and find the perpetrators of attacks targeting press freedom.

The journalists then held a sit-in action.

(ny-tt/zd/fk/cm)