Canadian journalists detained briefly during the Gezi Park protests released

ISTANBUL/ANKARA

CBC’s Middle East Correspondent Sasa Petricic tweeted 'arrested' at around 5:30 p.m.

Two reporters of the Canadian public broadcaster CBC, Sasa Petricic and Derek Stoffel, detained by the Turkish police during the ongoing protests in Istanbul on June 13, were released a few hours after being taken into custody.

CBC’s Middle East Correspondent Petricic, had tweeted a single word, “arrested,” at around 5:30 p.m. local time to inform of his detention. He tweeted "All good so far. Going through the Byzantine (literally) process! Thanks everyone" after he was released.

The Embassy of Canada in Ankara had confirmed to the Hürriyet Daily News that both journalists were taken into custody, adding that the reason of the detention had yet to be known. The Canadian embassy had subsequently contacted the Turkish Foreign Ministry over the incident. 

Following the incident, Turkey's ambassador to Canada, Tuncay Babali said that both journalists 'were safe and expected to be released shortly.' Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird had also tweeted earlier that he spoke with the Turkish ambassador and “expressed concern over reports of a CBC journalist detained in Istanbul.”

CBC had also confirmed the reports, adding that they had been in contact with the journalists and that “they were OK.