Hundreds of journalists gathered in Istanbul yesterday to protest against the use of excessive police force and the censorship they suffered from monopolized media bosses during Gezi Park protests.The demo of journalists was also supported by democratic non-governmental organizations, LGBTT and Gezi Park protestors.

Demonstrators were hindered by police as they started to march from Galatasaray Square to Taksim tramvay station.

The crowd therewith staged sit-in, chanting the slogans "We saw and heard, and we will write", "Free press cannot be silenced", "Freedom for jailed journalists".

The statement on behalf of journalists who were fired, censored and subjected to police violence during Gezi protests was made by Gülşah Karadağ who pointed out that the people of Turkey are being confined to disinformation.

"Censorship has explicitly revealed itself in the process of Gezi protests. We have gone through a desperate process. People were killed, wounded and detained and we covered these news but our media organizations broadcast penguins and cooking shows instead. We wrote the facts but the people were condemned to fabricated news. The peoples of Turkey were insulted with lies", she said.

Karadağ remarked that police, not respecting the immunity of journalists, assaulted, wounded and beat them as htey covered the protest. She underlined that a number of journalists were not only subjected to censorship but also fired for writing the truths in this process. Addressing to media bosses, police and the Turkish government, Karadağ said that; "Let us do our work without being beaten, targeted and arrested. Penguins are beautiful in poles".

Speaking after, Arzu Demir, ANF reporter and editor in chief of ETHA news agency, reminded that police also raided the ETHA office in Istanbul on 16 June. Demir said she herself and another woman working for the news agency were subjected to sexual abuse during the operation. She remarked that police also confiscated their press cards, adding that they will however never end writing the truths about the peoples resisting across the world.

Speaking after, IMC TV editor in chief Gökhan Biçici, who was also beaten by police while covering Gezi protests, pointed out that "This is not the first time we are witnessing the repression and arrest of journalists. The struggle of journalists working for free press, such as Metin Göktepe, has enabled journalists in Turkey to take to the streets more easily than the past. However, the practices of police and authorities during Gezi Park protests have caused scenes much worse than those witnessed in the past".

Biçici remarked that police started to treat journalists much more carelessly after Istanbul Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu pointed journalists as a target by speaking out against them. He pointed out that the attacks against journalists aimed to threaten journalists with subjecting them to circumstances like those in the past.

Evrensel daily reporter Özcan Yılmaz, who was wounded with tear gas canister police fired on his face, said that he had been deliberately targeted by police.