Pro-government Yeni Akit daily journalist Murat Alan was beaten on Friday in an İstanbul neighborhood by four men with sticks, the Habertürk news website reported.
Alan was recently criticized for his insults targeting Turkish generals on Yeni Akit’s Internet TV program.
Speaking about Turkey’s high-ranking military officers who got in line politically with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, he used the Turkish idiom “eşek gibi,” meaning “like a donkey,” to argue that they had no other choice than to obey the president.
The police identified the attackers and have launched an operation to detain them.
Meanwhile, Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Güler on Friday announced that his office had filed a lawsuit against Alan and his daily over the insult.
In May, five other Turkish journalists were attacked for their reporting.