2 Canadian journalists detained during Istanbul protests

Two reporters of the Canadian public broadcaster CBC were detained on Wednesday by Turkish policemen during the ongoing protests in Istanbul, amid the Turkish leadership's discontent about some foreign media's coverage of the clashes between the police and protesters. However, Sasa Petricic and Derek Stoffel were released a few hours after being taken into custody, according to a report of local Daily News. CBC's Middle East correspondent Petricic had tweeted a single word -- "arrested," at around 5:30 p.m. local time (1430 GMT) to inform of his detention; and the Canadian embassy in Ankara also confirmed that both journalists were detained. Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird also tweeted earlier that he had spoke with the Turkish ambassador and "expressed concern over reports of a CBC journalist detained in Istanbul." On Tuesday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul reacted harshly to foreign media coverage of the ongoing Gezi Park events, which were initially demonstrations against a demolition plan of the park but later turned into confrontations between the police and protesters. Gul criticized the reports for attempting to draw a parallel between the Gezi Park protests and the events in some Middle East countries over the past years. "You have to put what's happening there, and what is happening in Turkey in separate ranks. Especially foreign media outlets should be very careful about this," said the president. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also pointed his finger at foreign media, saying that the interest lobby and foreign news outlets were also involved. Turkey's riot police have launched two massive actions against over 10,000 protesters in Istanbul in the past two weeks with thousands of people injured and arrested.