Turkish Daily Files Complaint against CNN's Amanpour

A pro-government Turkish newspaper on Saturday said it had lodged a formal complaint against CNN International and its anchor Christiane Amanpour for their "false" coverage of the anti-government protests that have rocked Turkey.

"We filed a complaint Thursday against CNN and Amanpour on charges of inciting the public to hatred and enmity by making false news," Takvim daily news director Mevlut Yuksel, who submitted the petition to an Istanbul prosecutor's office with his lawyer, told Agence France Presse.

The newspaper in the petition accuses the U.S. broadcaster and the veteran journalist of "denigrating state organs, using the freedom of expression in uncontrolled and infinite ways and causing damages to public property by provoking the populace through false news to join protests."

Turkish government officials have repeatedly lashed out at international media outlets for their coverage of the nationwide demonstrations that have presented the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) government with its greatest challenge since coming to power in 2002.

Ankara mayor Melih Gokcek last week started a Twitter campaign against BBC Turkish correspondent Selin Girit, accusing her of acting as a spy for Britain.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seen by critics as increasingly authoritarian, has accused foreign media of wrongly portraying the mass unrest that erupted after police brutally cracked down on an environmental protest in Istanbul on May 31.

Erdogan has branded the turmoil -- which has left four people dead and nearly 8,000 injured -- as a plot "hatched by traitors and their foreign accomplices."