Turkish opposition holds mass protest in support of jailed Istanbul mayor

Well, we're going to turn now to Turkey where hundreds of thousands of people are gathering in Istanbul for another round of mass protests against the arrest of Ekram Imam alu, long viewed, of course, as Rejip Tayy Erdogan's main rival

Now, the protest move in is already the largest of the country has seen in over a decade

The leader of the main opposition party, Osgar Azales, decried the government's attempts thus far to, quote, intimidate and terrify protesters when he spoke earlier

For more, we're going to cross now to our correspondent in Ankara, Jasper Mortimer

Hi, there Jasper. So can you tell us more than about today's protests in Istanbul? How did it go

Yes, well, the rally was a success on two counts. First of all, it was peaceful. And that's important for the country as a whole. Because when there was violence between the demonstrators and the police earlier in these demonstrations, that did lead to a serious fall in the Turkish lira

Secondly, there was a huge turnout. The opposition party that was hosting the rally said 2 million people arrived I can confirm that personally but from the aerial photographs I saw

I think at least a million people were there, perhaps more. Now, President Erdogan said on Monday that these opposition demonstrations would fizzle out

And I think today's rally has proved Erdogan wrong. A letter from Ekram Imamulu, the jailed mayor of Istanbul, was read out at the rally

He was detained in a prison on the other side of Istanbul to where the rally took place

Imam alu said, quote, I have no fear, you are behind me

They can put me in jail and on trial as much as they want

The nation has shown it will crush all traps and crime. Now the main speaker of the rally Uzgo Ozel told the crowd that in the elections quote we want a brave opponent What he was saying was that President Erdogan was a coward because instead of facing Imammolu in a fair election he was putting him in jail

Now, Ozel has long called the detention of Imamu as a coup

and he said today, those who resist coup makers are defending democracy and the future

It does indeed look like the turnout is huge from the pictures

that we're seeing now, Jasper. So, I mean, how is Turkish media covering these massive demonstrations

That is another story. When these demonstrations became serious, the state media watchdog, which is dominated by government appointees

urged television channels not to cover live demonstrations. The chairman of the media watchdog said there is no need for disinformation as if an anti demonstration was itself disinformation So today state television TRT did not cover the rally but that was expected

Two private channels, which are popular, NTV and CNN Turk, didn't cover it either

I watched their news bulletins as the rally was going on. Now, those two channels are owned by corporations, which have other interests

Some of those interests are companies that depend on government contracts. So the chairmen of those corporations want to keep in with the government

Now, the rally was the biggest event in Turkey today. And when three of the biggest television channels don't cover it at all, that is shameful journalism

The one channel that did cover the rally live was Hulk television

Hulk means people. But that is linked to the opposition party. Jasper Mortimer in Ankara. Thank you very much