JINHA

ISTANBUL –Women journalists are protesting the incident when a Star TV cameraman raised his fist against their colleagues and fellow women in Istanbul.

The Women's Committee of the Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS) condemned the incident.

On March 14, a cameraman from Star TV, whose name is still unknown, raised his fist against women reporters ZuhalAtlan and NurYüce, of the agencies DİHA and ETHA respectively. When challenged about the incident, the cameraman said, "what does a real man do when he gets angry?"

"We want to thank the male cameraman for sparing us the trouble of having to write a long statement, as he has provided living proof of why we call this kind of violence 'male violence,'" said the union journalists, referring to the cameraman's nonchalant invocation of "masculinity."

Physical violence continued during the day. When Bianet reporter Beyza Kural went to discuss the incident with the cameraman, a female colleague of his pushed Beyza, asking her "don't you have a job?"

"As for the woman reporter who instead of advising her male colleague against his actions, reacted against women journalists, we ask her to stand beside us next time," said the statement.

"We are women journalists: with our cameras, our records, our pens and our womanhood, we're everywhere. We invite the male cameraman from Star TV and everyone with the same mindset to get used to it," said the journalists.

Women have also started an online social media campaign calling for the Star TV cameraman's name (which is still unknown) to be released, for there to be legal action against the cameraman and for Star TV to apologize.

(fk/cm)