Erdogan says press an accomplice in prosecutor killing

Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday launched one of his bitterest tirades against journalists, accusing the press of being an accomplice in the killing of a prosecutor in Istanbul last week.

The government has reacted furiously to the publication of images showing prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz held captive by a left-wing group with a gun held to his head earlier this week, temporarily blocking access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Erdogan, who has been repeatedly criticised for eroding press freedoms during his over-decade-long domination of Turkey, also accused some journalists of being "killers and thieves".

"The (press) establishments who opened their pages and screens to terrorist propaganda were complicit in the murder of our prosecutor," said Erdogan.

"I strongly condemn the organs of the press who were on the side of the terrorists," he added in his regular weekly speech to village chiefs from across Turkey at the presidential palace in Ankara.

Kiraz was killed when police launched an operation to rescue him from the far-left militants. The authorities have insisted that the two captors, who were both killed, fired the fatal shots.

Turkish media made wide use of the image circulated on social media by the militants of the prosecutor a gun to his head, with the popular Hurriyet daily putting it on the front page the next day.

"In Western countries considered to be the cradle of democracy, such a situation could never take place," added Erdogan.

"In these countries, press institutions which become tools of propaganda of terrorism and terrorists would be subject to a formal ban," he added.

He said some people posing as journalists were in reality "terrorists".

"They are the killers of police, they are thieves (who take) from ATMs. They have killed soldiers and they have thrown bombs," said Erdogan.

He said while Western rights groups accuse Turkey of jailing journalists "these people are actually terrorists". 

Turkey was the world`s top jailer of journalists in 2012 and 2013, according to the international Committee to Protect Journalists, before improving to tenth place in 2014.

Erdogan has previously insisted his country has "the freest press in the world."