Journalist covering news in Hatay receives death threat
The employees, allegedly representing the company, issued a menacing warning, stating, "You will get your mouth and nose broken, maybe you will get yourself killed. You've had your fill, clear off."
A fire broke out June 4 at night at the TOKİ disaster housing construction site in the Gülderen neighborhood of Hatay's Antakya district.
The fire, which broke out in containers housing approximately 200 workers, was extinguished by the General Directorate of Forestry and Hatay Municipality teams.
Hatay Municipality posted on social media, “Fortunately, no one was killed or injured.”
Journalist threatened
Journalist Kazım Kızıl, who was covering the fire in Gülderen, revealed that he was threatened by company employees while taking footage.
In the footage shared by Kızıl on his social media account, the person, identified as a company employee, said, “Look, you will make us take action. You will get your mouth and nose broken, maybe you will get yourself killed. You've had your fill, clear off."
Reached on the phone by bianet, Kazım Kızıl stated that he was intervened several times during his news reporting and that people claiming to be company officials told the gendarmerie, “Either you intervene or we will intervene.”
Hatay Gülderen TOKİ konutları şantiyesinde işçilerin kaldığı konteynerlerde çıkan yangını görüntülemek isterken şirket çalışanı ve beraberindeki 10 kişilik bir grup tarafından tehdit edildim.
— Ka (@kazimkizil) June 4, 2024
Tek iyi haber yangında ölen veya yaralanan işçinin olmaması. pic.twitter.com/o2wTCVymO4
“They followed me for a while”
Stating that he continued filming from a localtion sugested by the gendarmerie to avoid any tension, Kızıl said:
“The workers I spoke to told me that they were informed about the fire when the container started to melt. The containers were adjacent to each other and about 200 workers were staying there. I don't think the conditions were very healthy and correct in terms of occupational safety, which is what the situation shows. After a while, the same people came again and started saying, "Enough of this, get out of here." I posted 30 seconds of that video, which lasted about 5-6 minutes. The moment they started to physically intervene, I stepped back, grabbed my bag and walked away from the scene. They followed me for a while.”
“I will continue to do my job”
Journalist Kazım Kızıl, who has been in Hatay for months and has been reporting on the earthquake-devastated city on the spot, said: “What I experienced yesterday will not affect my work in Hatay. I will continue to do my job.”
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(VC/DT)
Managing Editor at bianet since April 2023. He worked full-time at sendika.org and T24, and as a freelance journalist for taz.gazete, Stern, and Inside Turkey between 2013 and 2023. He graduated from the Department of History at Istanbul University and completed his master’s degree in the Department of History at Kocaeli University with a thesis titled “The 1957 Turkey–Syria Crisis and Orientalist Discourse in the Turkish Press.”
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