ISTANBUL
Three press associations in Turkey have denounced an attack on two Anadolu Agency journalists as they covered a clash between protesters and riot police in the country’s southeastern Diyarbakir province.
AA photojournalist Huseyin Bagis was stabbed in the leg and reporter Aziz Aslan was beaten late on Wednesday by protesters in the Baglar district of Diyarbakir city as the pair documented fighting between demonstrators and police.
The duo were covering a protest against the closure of a school which had been sealed shut by Diyarbakir governorate for not having official permission to teach in Kurdish.
"The ever-growing number of attacks against journalists whose job is to enlighten the public is unacceptable," said Turkey's Medya-Is Union in a written statement.
The Press Council of Turkey stated that they harshly condemned the incident "where journalists were beaten up by people who were demanding freedom but attempting to curtail that of the press members."
"We decry the perpetrators of the attack against journalists who were working on behalf of people's right to learn the truth and being informed," said the Turkish Journalists' Association.
The association also called it an interference in the freedom of the press as journalists were blocked from performing their duties.
The two journalists were treated at Diyarbakir's Selahaddin Eyyubi State Hospital after the attack; both were discharged around noon on Thursday.
Both journalists filed official complaints to the provincial police department which launched an investigation to determine the identity of the assailants.
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