ISTANBUL - Oktay Eksi, chairman of the Turkish Press Council, requested Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday to announce the names of the journalists who asked to get unjust benefits from him (prime minister) stressing that such journalists didn't deserve any place in the press council.
Issuing a written statement on the issue, Eksi referred to the recent accusations of Prime Minister Erdogan against some journalists, which were covered by the newspapers. Eksi said that during a meeting, Erdogan had accused some journalists by saying, ''they went mad as they no longer get benefits by money syphoning'' and that some persons who took appointment to meet him with the title of 'journalists' asked him to get unfair benefits from investment projects, bids, tenders etc.
Eksi urged the prime minister to give him the names of those journalists and not to hide their names from the public opinion. ''Because journalism can't be manipulated and used as a tool for private ends. It is one of the most important principles of journalism,'' Eksi stated.
Eksi added that the Press Council was ready to take all sorts of action to clean the council from such 'journalists'.