ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Two employees at Turkey's public broadcaster TRT have been fired for social media posts they made supporting the Gezi protests in May and June, officials said.
Hurriyet Daily News said both employees were fired at the end of last month and after they were fired, they were forced to pay back their salaries for October.
One of the employee's contracts was rescinded for tweets he made that violated TRT's regulations forbidding "ideological and politically motivated" behaviors as well as "inciting to provocation," said a report from the daily Radikal.
The other employee was let go for social media posts he made that contain "scorning and deriding attributes targeting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan," the report said.
Media unions have criticized TRT's decision to fire the two men.
"The TRT administration has acted as a cop, a prosecutor and a judge by illegally inspecting the social media accounts of people and ultimately punishing them. It is clear that both the protection of privacy and freedom of expression were violated here," the Haber-Sen union said in a statement.
Radikal reported 15 other TRT staff members are also under investigation by the broadcast for posting comments in support of the Gezi protests on their personal social media accounts.
TRT General Directorate denied that the investigation was about supporting the protests.
"TRT is investigating not those who expressed an opinion, but the 15 personnel who broke the law while allegedly stating their opinion. A public employee has responsibilities determined by law," the broadcaster said.
