Press TV reporter killed in Turkey car crash, day after she was accused of spying

Serena Shim, a Lebanese-American reporter working for Iranian channel, Press TV, was killed in a car crash in Turkey on Sunday.

She had expressed fears for her own safety after she reported receiving threats from the Turkish intelligence agency (MİT), saying they had accused her of spying.

Her parents say they do not believe their daughter died in a normal accident in Turkey. They made the remarks during a visit by the news network’s Beirut Bureau team in Lebanon.

‘An American journalist believes that the slain Press TV correspondent Serena Shim appears to be the victim of a black operation by the US Central Intelligence Agency‘, Press TV is reporting today

‘Rodney Martin, who is the chairman of the American Nationalist Association, made the remarks on Monday following the questionable death of Shim inside Turkey, near the Syrian border.

“Mrs. Shim most likely died as a result of her tireless pursuit of truth which is suppressed by media in the West. Mrs. Shim appears to be the victim of a CIA black op, most likely with the cooperation of Turkey who just recently accused her of being a ‘spy’ after she exposed Turkey’s assistance of ISIL,” Martin said.

Shim, an American citizen of Lebanese origin, told Press TV on Friday that the Turkish intelligence had accused her of spying, adding that she feared being arrested.

On Sunday, her car collided with a heavy vehicle when she was returning from a report scene in Suruç, a rural district of Şanlıurfa Province of Turkey.

“Farcical car accidents have been a CIA and their MOSSAD trainees’ specialty since the early 1950s. Likewise, the CIA has targeted those who have exposed their boondoggles and ISIL is a major CIA boondoggle,” Martin said.

He also called on Turkey to grant Iranian officials access to investigate the cause of the reporter’s death.

“The so-called accidental death of Press TV’s reporter Serena Shim must be fully investigated. However, this investigation must be conducted by investigators from Iran, and Turkey must grant full access to Iranian investigators,” Martin said.

“Mrs. Shim had heroically reported truth on the scene regarding ISIL from Kobani,” he said, referring to Syria’s predominantly Kurdish city near the Turkish border, where the ISIL terrorists and Kurdish fighters are engaged in intense fighting.

Martin also criticized the US State Department for being silent over the death.

Shim is “an American citizen within the borders of an American ally” Turkey and “the State Department was silent when Rachel Corrie, another American citizen, died in the territory of another US ally, Israel,” Martin stated.

“The United States does not have a credible track record of investigating deaths/murders of its citizens. It does, however, have a selective policy. Additionally, the United States has not been unbiased with its treatment of media that does not tow its policy line. US police harassed US-based Press TV crews this summer in Ferguson, Missouri. The United States demanded Saudi Arabia give US investigators full access when US citizens died in the Khobar Towers incident and demanded the same access for American investigators from Yemen regarding the USS Cole incident,” he said.

“Turkey must grant investigators from Iran full access to all forensic evidence and the crime scene so as to assure there is no stifling of honest journalism and a full accounting is provided to Mrs. Shim’s family. Neither Turkey nor the US has the credibility to provide such an investigation,” he concluded.‘

Tributes for Serena Shim have been pouring in via social media following Press TV’s request that she be remembered.