TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN ACCUSED INT’L MEDIA FOR SILENCE ON FRANCE’S MEDIA BLOCKADE

Tue 01 December 2020:

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the TRT World Forum, Erdoğan said international media acts hypocritically toward Turkey, trying to twist the realities of the country while overlooking many alarming practices in the European states like France.

“Especially since the 2013 Gezi Events, our country has faced a serious unfair stance and double standard. The ones who burned down the streets have been presented as peaceful protestors by the international media outlets who were broadcasting live for 24 hours,” the president said.

He added that a similar stance is also valid for the terrorists who are killing hundreds of thousands of civilians in Syria and yet somehow found a place for themselves on the covers of the so-called “prestigious” Western magazines.

“However, when similar events take place in various European states, the ones who dared to give us a lesson on freedom of press play ostrich. They ignored the yellow vest protests that lasted for months at the center of Paris. They never mentioned French police officers’ disproportionate intervention that blinded the protestors. They did not mention a word on French state institutions’ blockade on the media,” he underlined.

The French government has dropped a controversial bill that would have curbed the right to film police officers in action, the speaker of French President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party said Monday.

Last Tuesday, the lower house of parliament gave initial approval to a security bill that would restrict the publication of photos or videos of police officers’ faces, although it still faces further legislative hurdles.

French activists feared that the proposed security law would have deprived them of a potent weapon against abuse – cellphone videos of police activity – threatening their efforts to document possible cases of police brutality, especially in impoverished immigrant neighborhoods.

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