Ultranationalist party advisor: "Undesirable things will happen if they do not stop street journalists"

The press advisor for the leader of the far right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in Turkey targeted street journalism, calling street journalists "disgusting", and urging Turkish authorities to stop them before "something bad happened."

Yildiray Cicek, the press advisor for MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, claimed in his recent article that the street journalists are recruited by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and they "serve the opposition bloc" through street interviews they made.

Cicek said:

"They are so disgusting that they do not hesitate to debase and insult people when they get a reply they do not like. They are so conditioned like robots that they roam the streets like zombies to deserve the ATM cards handed to them by CHP."

He added:

"Believe me, if these street journalists are not regulated, if everyone with a camera and microphone continue to go out on the street, undesirable things will happen tomorrow."

Cicek earlier targeted standup comedian Cem Yilmaz after the latter's remarks about the continued incarceration of Selahattin Demirtas, the former co-chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

“Regarding universal standards, I think such things shouldn’t take place in any country” Yılmaz had said on a TV show last November.

Cicek said upon Yilmaz's remarks: “Your role in this campaign of support for treachery will never be forgotten and there will be noone to save you.”

Then in February, Cicek targeted Sezen Aksu, one of Turkey's most influential musicians, prominent Turkish writer and humorist Aziz Nesin, Indian-British author Salman Rushdie and Turkish musician Fazil Say in a single article.