12,000 Turkish policemen fired, major TV station shut

Turkey’s security general directorate on Tuesday announced that a total of 12,801 police officers have been suspended from their posts over suspected links to Fethullah Gulen, the US-based preacher blamed for the botched coup.

Government forces have  also raided the main offices and broadcast centre of IMC TV, a key opposition news channel in the country, cutting the broadcast.

Journalists and politicians were reportedly using social media to broadcast the crackdown over the Internet.

However IMC also confirmed the raid by armed police on its Twitter account.

IMC was among over 20 channels that Turkey’s broadcasting authority ordered shut recently, drawing strong condemnation from press freedom groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The measure affected mostly Kurdish and leftist broadcasters, including a children’s channel that showed cartoons in the Kurdish language.

“The right to information has been hindered. This is anti-democratic and unacceptable,’’ Hamza Aktan, news editor of IMC TV, told reporters.

Since the failed July coup, Turkey has implemented a state of emergency.

The government has shut dozens of media outlets affiliated with Gullen’s movement.

However, the government has also increasingly moved against Kurdish activists, politicians and media, alleging they have ties to militants.