The New York Times responded to attacks on its Turkey reporter after it published a report focusing on the alleged recruitment of Turks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the 
Levant (ISIL) in an Ankara neighborhood, calling on Turkish authorities to ensure her safety. report TodayZAMAN
Ceylan Yeğinsu came under attack by the pro-government media and on social media platforms after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lashed out at a report she wrote for The New York Times that was published on Sept. 15. Erdoğan particularly was angered by the photo that was published along with the story, picturing him and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu leaving a mosque in the same Ankara neighborhood, Hacı Bayram. “This is shameless, ignoble and base,” Erdoğan said in a speech on Wednesday.
Later that same day, The New York Times removed the photo and issued a correction, saying the photo was published in error and clarifying that neither the mosque in the photo nor the president’s visit were related to the recruiting of ISIL fighters described in the article.
The New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet said that even though the correction had been issued, the reporter came under an “unacceptable” attack.
“Despite this published correction, some Turkish authorities and media outlets have mounted a coordinated campaign to intimidate and to impugn the motives of the reporter who wrote the story,” Baquet said in the statement released late on Thursday. “She has been sent thousands of messages that threaten her safety. It is unacceptable for one of our journalists to be targeted in this way.”
“We expect the Turkish authorities to work to ensure the safety of our journalists working legally in the country and we would ask these authorities to use well-established procedures for reaching either myself or other top editors of The New York Times should further communication regarding this matter be necessary,” he also said.
Yeğinsu has been targeted in pro-government newspapers and websites, which have published defamatory articles that feature her photo.
“Ceylan wrote that story,” read a front-page story in the Takvim daily on Thursday. Two other pro-government media outlets, Star newspaper and A Haber television, also ran stories on their websites “exposing” The New York Times reporter as a Turk. “A Turk turned out to be behind the New York Times’ perception operation,” read the headline of a story on the website of Star newspaper, again with a photo of Yeğinsu.
Takvim continued to target Yeğinsu on Friday, running another front-page story featuring her photo and titled: “Hear this, Ceylan.” The story offered a compilation of accounts from people it said were residents of Hacı Bayram, criticizing Yeğinsu for her report and dismissing the ISIL recruitment operation described in it.