U.S. Criticizes Efforts to Intimidate Times Reporter in Turkey

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/world/europe/us-criticizes-efforts-to-intimidate-times-reporter-in-turkey.html

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The State Department on Saturday criticized Turkey over attempts to intimidate and threaten a New York Times correspondent whose reporting about Turks recruited by the Islamic State, the militant group, has deeply offended Turkey’s president.

Personal attacks conveyed through email and Twitter aimed at the correspondent, Ceylan Yeginsu, have intensified in Turkey since the publication of her article on Tuesday about the Islamic State’s recruitment efforts.

On Friday, Turkish newspapers controlled by allies of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published front-page photographs of Ms. Yeginsu and asserted that she was a traitor and foreign agent who was seeking to falsely imply that Mr. Erdogan is a closet supporter of the Islamic State.

Turkey, along with the United States and most other countries, regard the group as a terrorist organization.

The Times has stood by the reporting in Ms Yeginsu’s article, called the intimidation efforts against her in Turkey unacceptable, and requested that the Turkish authorities take steps to ensure the safety of its journalists working legally in the country.

“We have seen reports of efforts to intimidate a New York Times journalist in Turkey,” the State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said in a statement. “Singling out individual journalists endangers their safety and puts them at risk of retaliation.”

Ms. Psaki also said: “Such intimidation is contrary to Turkey’s own expressed desire to be a model of democracy and to uphold the highest democratic standards. An independent and unfettered media is an essential element of democratic, open societies.”

Mr. Erdogan was particularly offended by a photograph that had been posted on the Times website with Ms. Yeginsu’s article, showing him at a mosque in Ankara. The newspaper promptly removed the photograph in response and a published a correction saying editors had erred in using it.

Dean Baquet, the Times executive editor, also issued a statement that the article never said or implied that Mr. Erdogan supported the Islamic State or condoned its recruitment in Turkey, or was the photograph meant to imply such support.