Unceremoniously. AFP photographer Bülent Kiliç was arrested on Saturday by law enforcement when he was covering the dispersal of the Istanbul Pride March banned by the authorities, witnesses and advocates reported. freedom of press. “We condemn the arrest of AFP reporter Bülent Kiliç who covered the pride march in Taksim (…). We demand his immediate release, ”Reporters Without Borders in Turkey responded on Twitter.
RSF temsilcisi @ErolOnderoglu: İstanbul Taksim’deki #onurhaftasi yürüyüşünü izleyen @AFP muhabiri # BülentKılıç‘ın (@Kilicbil ) boğazına basılıp nefessiz bırakılarak gözaltına alınmasını kınıyoruz. Kılıç’ın derhâl serbest bırakılmasını ve sorumlulara işlem yapılmasını istiyoruz! pic.twitter.com/fZlYTQu9yQ
– RSF Türkçe (@RSF_tr) June 26, 2021
An image showing the moment of the arrest of the journalist, pinned to the ground by police officers who press with their legs on his body, was broadcast on social networks.
Several demonstrators arrested
Bulent Kiliç was arrested while covering the dispersal of the Istanbul Pride March banned by the authorities. According to activists, the police arrested several demonstrators who gathered on a street in Taksim, a central district of Istanbul that traditionally hosts gay pride.
After a spectacular pride march that brought together more than 100,000 people in Istanbul in 2014, the Turkish authorities have banned it year after year, officially for security reasons. LGBT associations denounce a “campaign of hatred” carried out for years against them by the Turkish government, at the risk of encouraging violence against a particularly vulnerable community.