Erdoğan should Immediately Apologize to Journalist Amberin Zaman!

During a highly polarising presidential election campaign, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, unabashedly took aim at members of different faiths and ethnic communities. Women associations and women journalists were also attacked.

Among them was Amberin Zaman, a respected female journalist, who is the Turkey correspondent of The Economist and a columnist for the Turkish daily Taraf newspaper. During two successive campaign rallies Mr Erdogan labeled her a “militant in the guise of a journalist” and a “shameless” and “despicable” woman and encouraged the crowds to boo her. He additionally claimed that she had “insulted Islam” in a television debate with an opposition leader.

It is unacceptable that Ms Zaman be targeted publicly in this way. This assault on her integrity and her professional credentials is also a flagrant offense against the freedom of press in Turkey. It also exposes Ms Zaman to physical harm.

Every insult that is directed at Amberin Zaman, as a woman and journalist, is an insult against each and every one of us. We, therefore, demand that Mr Erdogan refrain from such inflammatory and insulting comments in the future and that he immediately deliver a public apology to Ms Zaman.