A famous Turkish broadcaster made a grave mistake live, during an interview with a government official, when he slapped the sound technician in front of everyone in a humiliating manner, causing outrage against him in the Turkish media.
According to the Turkish newspaper, “Al-Sabah”, the incident occurred during an interview with Ms. Fatima Sahin, mayor of the Turkish municipality of Gaziantep.
The video clip showed how the technician, Ahmed Demir, was trying to fix the sound defect in the earphones of the presenter Muharram Sarikaya’s phone, and the repair attempt continued for a while, which annoyed the famous broadcaster on the air.
Burada tokattan sonra olanlar var. Saldırıdan sonraki tavırları da garip. Hiç bir şey yokmuş gibi konuşmaya devam etmeleri de tuhaf. pic.twitter.com/UhWlykmUd3
— Serhat Uçak (@serhatucak) December 19, 2021
In a fit of anger, the presenter slapped him in the face and took him away from the phone, then began pointing to the show’s crew and writing on a piece of paper trying to fix the sound.
The scene caused dissatisfaction on social media with Sarikaya, who wrote an apology blog for the sound technician and the mayor of Gaziantep.
“During the live broadcast we had with Gaziantep Mayor Fatma Şahin, I lost control of myself for a moment due to recurring technical problems,” Sarikaya said.
“I created a problem and I shouldn’t have done it. I behaved inappropriately for myself and for the organization I represent,” he added.
Olay kamuoyuna yansıdığı için şimdi de kamuoyu önünde İHA kameramanı Sayın Ahmet Demir, İHA Bölge Mürdürü Sayın Orhan Akın ile olaya tanıklık eden Sayın Gaziüantep Büyükşehir Belediye Başkanı Sayın Fatma Şahin’den ve kamuoyundan mazeretsiz özür diliyorum…
Muharrem SARIKAYA— MUHARREM SARIKAYA (@msarikaya6) December 19, 2021
The clip angered journalists in Turkey, and they demanded that Sarikaya be held accountable and that a case for material and moral compensation be filed and not to stand idly by in front of that incident.