Offices of Turkish opposition media group Koza Ipek are being stormed by Turkish police. Tear gas and water cannon are being used to quell the protest after an earlier assault on the building.
Media workers have told RT they are being prevented from entering or exiting the building, and broadcasting has been stopped by the police.
"They don't let me go outside my office," Emrah Ulker, a journalist from Koza Ipek's subsidiary Bugun TV told RT by phone from inside the besieged building. "They cut our broadcast, and now we have a black screen, because we are open to all different political views of Turkish society."
A Kanalturk TV presenter and producer also trapped inside the building told RT that the actions of the police were "a real shock" for the journalists.
"They used force to come inside... At first they didn't go into the control room... but then they cut out broadcast, so now we are blacked out," Aydan Onder told RT by phone. "Nobody is telling anything about what's happening... We don't know what to do tomorrow... I'm not sure if we can go inside tomorrow," she added.
The incident took place outside the offices of Kanalturk and Bugun TV in Istanbul, while footage was broadcast live on Bugun’s website.
It comes days before the country goes to the polls. The media outlet is linked to an Islamic preacher opposed to President Tayyip Recep Erdogan.
"Anyone who doesn't support the government... are branded terrorists. They [the authorities] did something very unlawful, they took over the company... This morning I came to the channel and I could hardly enter... there was tear gas and lots of violence," Pelin Batu, Bugun TV presenter trapped inside the company's headquarters told RT.
The Turkish journalist, a prominent critic of the Turkish regime, said she didn't believe there was freedom of the press in Turkey and that the state is "in the running for being one of the most fascist countries in the world."
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