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| The Grand Turk |
| Outcry as Erdogan tells female reporter to 'know your place' |
| 2014-08-09 |
| [ARABNEWS] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet... faced new questions on Friday over his attitude to the media and women after he branded a prominent female journalist a "shameless woman" and told her "to know your place." Just ahead of Sunday's presidential election which he is clear favorite to win, Erdogan savaged Amberin Zaman, who writes for the Economist and the Turkish daily Taraf, over comments she made in a television debate. She had asked the main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the debate whether any Mohammedan society was capable of challenging its authorities. Erdogan lashed out at Zaman, without mentioning her directly by name, at an election rally in the eastern city of Malatya on Thursday, calling her a "shameless woman." "A militant in the guise of a journalist, a shameless woman... Know your place!" he declared. "They gave you a pen and you are writing a column in a newspaper... and you insult a society that is 99 percent Mohammedan," he said, drawing loud boos from the crowd. This is not the first time Erdogan has lashed out at journalists, who have come under increasing pressure in Turkey, which has more news hounds behind bars than any other country in the world. The Economist released a statement in response to the salvo, saying its correspondent of 15 years was "widely respected." "We stand firmly by her and her reporting. The intimidation of journalists has no place in a democracy. Under Mr. Erdogan, Turkey has become an increasingly difficult place for independent journalism," the statement said. Zaman responded to Erdogan through her column in the Taraf newspaper, headlined: "Be a human first!" "You are lynching a Mohammedan woman who described what you are doing. Because women are sitting targets, aren't they?" She said she had been the target of a smear campaign by pro-government media outlets. The US-based watchdog Freedom House downgraded the status of Turkey's media from "partly free" to "not free" in May. Erdogan remains the hot favorite to win Sunday's election and become head of state, with the main question being if he will win outright in the first round. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #13 Now Erdogan is working on jailing the police who investigated government corruption. Posted by Odysseus If Erdogan had a proper Attorney General who could exercise prosecutorial descretion, he'd have no need to be jailing police officers. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-08-09 20:48 |
| #12 Erdogan jailed the military officers who were most likely to challenge him. Morsi wasn't able to accomplish that. Now Erdogan is working on jailing the police who investigated government corruption. |
| Posted by: Odysseus 2014-08-09 18:32 |
| #11 Turkish universal conscription was foolish not to exempt him as not worth the effort. If you're going to have universal conscription, it's probably not a good idea or fair to everyone else to discharge people for being [word redacted]. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2014-08-09 17:36 |
| #10 A*&s |
| Posted by: Frank G on the road 2014-08-09 17:31 |
| #9 That was a different Rantburg ummm, associate. Greek instead of Turkish. Frank's special friend. :) |
| Posted by: Shipman 2014-08-09 15:52 |
| #8 ...infected blister ? The "blister" is attending independent school by now no doubt. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-08-09 09:29 |
| #7 Wonder what olde Rantburg ummm, associate Murat thinks about the new Turkey? Poor Murat accepted a programming job in England or something after he left the army, discharged early, if I recall correctly, for an infected blister. But he'd admitted all along that he really wasn't military material, and Turkish universal conscription was foolish not to exempt him as not worth the effort. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2014-08-09 09:24 |
| #6 Isn't this the same approach that the Obama administration takes with 'uppity' reporters? Besides bugging their computers and sicking the IRS on them? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-08-09 08:53 |
| #5 Its a shame the US will not back the military in a coup. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2014-08-09 06:54 |
| #4 Murat may be clamped in irons by this time. "Know your place" applies to more than just reporters in the Islamist world. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2014-08-09 06:54 |
| #3 Wonder what olde Rantburg ummm, associate Murat thinks about the new Turkey? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2014-08-09 06:09 |
| #2 This guys sees himself as the new Caliph. |
| Posted by: Paul D 2014-08-09 05:42 |
| #1 These fok's should have been suspended from NATO and cut off long ago. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-08-09 02:45 |