Cyprus-Forum.com

[turkkan]

CyBC veteran threatened by ‘no’ protesters
By Stefanos Evripidou

THE JOURNALISTS’ Union yesterday condemned the “threatening attack” against newsman Costas Yennaris by an angry mob at the Ledra Street crossing during the fifth anniversary of the Annan plan referendum.

The Union described the attack against him while he was attempting a live link-up with Greece as “an open attack and threat against freedom of the press and freedom of expression as well as against the basic inalienable right of citizens to be informed”.

Ruling party AKEL also condemned the attack, accusing the mob of adopting “fascist practices” through their menacing threats against the journalist while he was attempting to do his work.

Yennaris was preparing for a live link-up with Greek channel ERT at around 10.30pm last Friday in front of the Ledra Street crossing. According to the journalist, before going live, a group of around 30 to 40 people arrived from the nearby anti-Annan plan demonstration at Ledra Palace and began terrorising him.

The group turned up with banners and flags shouting anti-Turkish and anti-Demetris Christofias slogans. When they saw Yennaris, one Limassol lawyer, Panayiotis Kleovoulou, asked to be interviewed. When the ERT journalist declined saying that he was there to cover the Greek Prime Minister’s visit and the Turkish Cypriot ‘elections’, the lawyer reportedly turned abusive.

According to Yennaris, the lawyer accused him of getting under his skin for years.

“He told me that he’d wanted to get me for years, but I’ve never met the man before,” said Yennaris.

Meanwhile, the crowd began throwing abuse at Yennaris and preventing him from preparing for his satellite link-up while jeering at those crossing through the Ledra Street checkpoint.

“It was stupid, frustrating and all sorts of things painful. I felt as if I was experiencing the 1974 days. There was so much hatred. They were looking at me, saying ‘we know who you are, you’re in the company of Turks, we’ll fix you’,” said Yennaris.

When he was eventually linked up to ERT, the crowd got in front of the camera with a huge banner reading: “Close the checkpoints. They are killing our children.” The Greek broadcaster chose to abandon the link-up as the journalist was unable to carry out his work, and in concern for his safety.

Yennaris stayed in the area for a while longer, fearful of being attacked if he left, and also to ensure that a Turkish Cypriot colleague and his wife returned to the north safely.

The few uniformed police present tried to keep tempers calm and avoid clashes. Later, they questioned some of the demonstrators about their activities on that night.

“They released a statement saying they were provoked, and that I started shouting at 30/40 people, telling them off and insulting them. The funny thing is some recorded it on their cell phones and put it on the internet,” noted Yennaris.

The journalist reported the event to the Journalists’ Union, Bar Association and the House Human Rights Committee.

“It’s not the first time in my career that I experience such attacks, without them ever getting the intended results,” noted Yennaris, adding that he would continue to report the truth.


Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009

[turkkan]

To be fair this pretentious piece of shit did sort of deserve it. I went to one his talks once without really knowing anything about him, for the next hour he posed as the biggest fighter against the junta,a person who sacrificed a good financial career in civil engineering to cover the cyprus problem and the most insightful man concerning the cyprus problem also. Fat fuck.