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Updated: CBC journalists who were detained in Turkey have been released

Two CBC foreign correspondents, who were detained Wednesday by Turkish police while covering protests, have been released. Petricic explained on Twitter that he and Stoffel were arrested while taking photographs of city crew as they took down protesters' barricades. By Eric Mark Do and Tamara Baluja *Photos courtesy of Twitter (Derek Stoffel at left, Sasa…

Two CBC foreign correspondents, who were detained Wednesday by Turkish police while covering protests, have been released. Petricic explained on Twitter that he and Stoffel were arrested while taking photographs of city crew as they took down protesters' barricades.

By Eric Mark Do and Tamara Baluja

*Photos courtesy of Twitter (Derek Stoffel at left, Sasa Petricic at right) 

Two CBC foreign correspondents, who were detained Wednesday by Turkish police while covering protests, have been released.

Petricic, a CBC TV Middle East correspondent, explained on Twitter that he and Stoffel were arrested while taking photographs of city crew as they took down protesters' barricades.

 

Reporters Derek Stoffel and Sasa Petricic credited CBC News, Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird, Baird's staff and Canadian diplomats in Turkey for helping to expedite their release. 

Shortly after Petricic was arrested, he sent out a one-word tweet saying "arrested."

As of 2 p.m. Wednesday it had received 948 retweets.

CBC News general manager and editor-in-chief Jennifer McGuire sent out an internal memo earlier in the day saying that Petricic and Stoffel were speaking to their lawyer before giving statements to the police. McGuire said that CBC had spoken with them directly and that they were "being treated well." Both journalists had met with Canadian consular officials in Instanbul after getting arrested.

CBC News said Sasa Petricic and Derek Stoffel had not been harmed.

Foreign minister John Baird tweeted: “Just got off the phone with the Turkish ambassador and expressed concern over reports of a CBC journalist detained in Istanbul.”

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The Canadian Journalists for Free Expression said it was concerned about the situation, and on Wednesday afternoon the Turkish ambassador to Canada also tweeted that the two journalists were expected to be released shortly. By 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, Petricic tweeted, "We're out!"

Eric Mark Do