Turkish journalist shot at, then sentenced to prison

Outside an Istanbul courthouse Friday, Can Dundar was waiting for his hearing to resume when a man with a pistol approached.

Dundar, editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, was on trial along with one of its reporters, Erdem Gul, for “publishing state secrets” in a video last year that appeared to show Turkey’s intelligence agency supplying weapons to Islamist insurgents in Syria.

The man with the gun cried “traitor.”

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As Dundar’s wife and an politician attempted to restrain the man, he fired at least two shots from waist level, video footage shows.

He missed Dundar.

A television reporter was wounded, local media reported.

The attacker dropped his gun and was detained by plainclothes police. He was identified as Murat Sahin, from the province of Sivas, but authorities released little else about him.

“I do not know who he is,” Dundar told reporters. “I only saw him point his gun at me.”

After the shooting, Dundar returned to the courtroom for the verdict. He was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years and 10 months in prison. Gul received five years.

In response, Dundar accused the court of carrying out the day’s second “assassination” attempt.

Prosecutors had accused the journalists of espionage and seeking to violently topple the government. The men argued that they were acting in the public interest and stood by their reporting.

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Dundar called on his supporters to defend the free press, telling the Hurriyet Daily News: “All of us have to be brave.”

The verdicts — and the shooting — are the latest illustrations of the increasingly difficult conditions for the media in Turkey, which detains more journalists than most other countries.

“The convictions are extremely worrying and amount to intimidation against any kind of critical journalism,”said Erol Onderoglu, the Turkey representative of Reporters Without Borders. “It clearly harms the rights of journalists to mount a public interest defense.”

He added: “I feel the constant verbal attacks and denunciations of critical journalists from government circles has created a hostile environment for reporters. This murder attempt and these convictions will have extremely negative repercussions for journalism in Turkey.”

Press freedom watchdogs say that Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is a plaintiff in the trial, is assailing the free press in Turkey as he seeks to expand his personal powers and muzzle dissent.

“We know who made us as a target,” said Dundar. “I hope they take lessons.”

Johnson is a special correspondent.

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UPDATES:

3:24 p.m.: This article has been updated with new details and background.

10:42 a.m.: This article has been updated with news of the court sentence.

This article was originally published at 9:23 a.m.