TODAYSZAMAN.COM / ISTANBUL

Riot police allegedly detained CNN’s İstanbul correspondent Ivan Watson and his crew and a freelance journalist from Italy was injured when he was hit by a tear gas canister.

According to reports, the events happened on Saturday during protests staged to mark the anniversary of last year’s massive anti-government Gezi protests.

“Turkish police detained me and my crew in the middle of a live report in Taksim Square. One officer kneed me in the butt,” Watson said in a tweet on Saturday. Other reports say that the CNN crew was not formally detained but was prevented from staying on the air.

In Ankara, freelance journalist and photographer Piero Castellano was hit in the chest by a tear gas canister fired by police, according to a report published on the news site sendika.org. The report said Castellano was in good condition.

Turkish Journalists’ Federation (TGF) on Sunday issued a statement harshly condemning attacks on members of the press covering the anniversary of the Gezi demonstrations. Its President Atila Sertel, referring to Watson’s detention on live television, said, “The police of this state do not recognize the press card issued by the Directorate General of Press and Information [BYEGM] of the Prime Ministry, recognized all around the world.” In CNN’s footage showing police intervention to Watson’s crew, Watson can be seen showing his yellow press card to the police, who continued to manhandle him.

Sertel said many members of the press had been prevented from doing their job by the police on Saturday. Sertel, who is also a member of the Press Cards Commission, said: “If this is going to go on, if reporters will be prevented from performing their duties, these press cards we carry don’t mean a thing. If that is the case, we are ready to return our press cards. On the other hand, if journalists fail to stand together on professional ethics and the freedom to perform their job, they should be ashamed.”

Saturday was May 31, the first anniversary of the broad anti-government protests that lasted for more than a month last year in many cities across Turkey that started as a sit-in protest against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s plan to build a shopping mall over Gezi Park in İstanbul.

Police cracked down heavily on protesters. At least 120 people were detained in İstanbul alone and over a dozen were injured on Saturday during police interventions in the demonstrations. So far, there have been reports of violence against only two members of the press.