A senior journalist who was targeted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for criticizing a government development project said on Tuesday he will take a long leave of absence as mounting pressure on the media has started to take a large toll on press freedom in Turkey.

Fatih Altaylı, who writes columns for the Haber Türk daily, attracted the ire of President Erdoğan for an article he wrote about the construction of a third airport in İstanbul saying the site of the airport should be changed because of a number of problematic issues resulting from the location of the project.

Erdoğan publicly accused Altaylı of carrying out a defamation campaign against the government over the third airport. “There is a need for an urgent operation against them,” said the president, referring to Altaylı.

The journalist wrote in his column on Tuesday that what he had previously said about the state of the progress at the construction site was based on facts, interviews and a site survey he conducted personally. “I will continue to work in professional journalism as long as I can,” he said.

He said he had long planned to take a vacation to visit Latin America as well as South Asia, adding that he plans to resume writing upon his return.

Last week, journalist Doğan Satmış, deputy editor-in-chief of Haber Türk, was fired from the paper. Satmış was the right-hand man of Altaylı, who also served as the daily’s editor-in-chief from its establishment until last March, when he was forced to step down from the position.

Altaylı and Satmış were known for trying to follow objective journalism at Haber Türk despite government efforts to control the media outlet, which is owned by businessman Turgay Ciner.

It is very common for Erdoğan to single out journalists and target them publicly due to their criticism of the government or Erdoğan.

Today’s Zaman columnist İhsan Yılmaz, an associate professor of political science at Fatih University, also became one of Erdoğan’s targets recently for his criticism of the government during a meeting abroad.

Erdoğan called Yılmaz a “traitor” last week in İstanbul, without naming the columnist directly.

Moreover, 11 journalists working for Kanal D have been fired from the TV channel, according to media reports. Kanal D is owned by the Doğan Media Group, which until recently tried to remain objective but is said to have ultimately bowed to government pressure due to the government threat of heavy tax fines.