“Journalist at BBC. Theater enthusiast. Rock music fan.” This is how Selin Girit, a respected Turkish reporter for the BBC, describes herself on her Twitter profile. But the Turkish authorities have labeled Girit a “foreign agent” and a “traitor to her country” in line with a new and chilling campaign against foreign journalists covering the mass anti-government protests that have been rocking Turkey.
The accusations against Girit were first leveled by Ankara’s longtime mayor, Ibrahim Melih Gokcek. On June 23, Gokcek, a member of the ruling Islam-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), shared a series of inflammatory messages targeting the journalist with his 700,000+ Twitter followers.
