Turkish authorities should allow media and journalists to do their jobs, and investigate reports of journalists being attacked by security forces and threatened online for their election reporting, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

After Sunday’s local elections, Turkey’s highest election authority, the Supreme Election Council (YSK), rescinded the victory of a pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) mayoral candidate on Tuesday, in the eastern metropolitan city of Van, on grounds that he was not eligible to run. YSK then certified election results in favor of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which received the second-most votes.

The decision, as well as claims of voter fraud at polling stations in the mostly Kurdish-populated regions of eastern and southeastern Turkey, led to days of social unrest in multiple cities with Van being the foremost epicenter. Another major site of protests and clashes occurred in the southeastern city of Hakkari, where the results of 60 ballots were contested by AKP and six contested by DEM.

Police intervened in the protests with arrests, tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons, targeting several field reporters, some of whom were taken into custody. Multiple journalists also reported receiving threats and insults online and offline.

“Field reporters are among the most vulnerable journalists in Turkey. Security forces, and even civilians, exploit the country’s institutionalized impunity to pressure journalists into not doing their jobs. Their hostility extends to not taking threats against journalists – whether online or face to face — seriously,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should, protect all journalists who believe their security is compromised, remove the issued foreign travel bans, investigate the claims of excessive force, and end the constant violent actions against field reporters.”

All of the field reporters in Van who spoke to CPJ said they were tear-gassed on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Protests ended and turned into celebrations by Wednesday evening in Van after the DEM candidate’s win was recognized by authorities.

Meanwhile, multiple news outlets reporting on claims of voting fraud on Sunday were blocked from publishing those stories online in Turkey by court order, local anti-censorship group Free Web Turkey reported.

CPJ emailed the Turkish Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, and the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office for comment but did not immediately receive any replies.