Can Dündar, a Turkish journalist, columnist, documentarian who has worked in various TV channels and newspapers since 1991 with many pieces of books, documentaries, columns and awards.
On 29th May 2015, he published a piece on a Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet about the footage showing the weapons discovered in a truck to Syrian Islamist fighters by the Turkish National Intelligence (MIT), even though the president Erdogan had cited otherwise in his earlier speeches. The chief editor of the newspaper Can Dündar alongside the chief of Ankara bureau Erdem Gül were arrested in November 2025. This was followed by the speech of the president Erdogan citing “ the individuals that published these news will pay the price” that unlawfully targeted these journalists.
Dündar and Gül were sent to Silivri F Type Prison, one of biggest prison for journalists. The charges included “political and military espionage”, “disclosing information that should remain confidential”, “ assuring information about the state’s safety”, “terrorist organisation propaganda”. The alleged terrorist organisation referred to is the Gulen Movement. Dündar’s book “We are Arrested (Turkish: Tutuklandık)” notes the moment of hearing as very quick, taking a couple of minutes only for the judge to make the decision and dismiss, highlighting that the decision was made already due to the political interest by the ruling party. Dündar and Gul spent 92 days in solitary confinement and were released due to “violation of rights”.
On 6th May 2016, Dündar was charged with 5 years and 10 months due to “ assuring and releasing confidential information for the state’s security” but was not arrested as the sentence was not finalised. The charges of espionage were dropped and the allegation of “willingfully aiding, while not being part of the terrorist organisation” was separated from the case, that was later asked for 7,5 to 15 years of prison sentence. After the court hearing, Dündar faced and assassination attempt during his public speech.
Currently, he is charged for 27 years and 6 months of imprisonment for all the cases made against him after his news coverage in May 2015. Dündar has been living in Germany in exile and is in the grey list of ‘Wanted for Terrorism’ released by the Turkish Home Office 2022.
During his lifetime and after his imprisonment he has been awarded many recognitions such as by
ECPMF (European Centre for Press and Media Freedom) ,
PEN,
CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists)
and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Award in 2017. He continues his work in journalism in Germany.
He was given the nickname “Turkish Julian Assange” that draws similarities between the cases journalists face while doing their job of providing reliable information to the public. Recently, Julian Assange has been released which is groundbreaking in showing the importance of press freedom in the world.
Turkey currently ranks 158th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Index, scoring 31.6.
We, as Rights Defenders, call for freedom of press and the right of public to receive transparent and valid information. This can only be obtained when the journalists are freed from imprisonment and unlawful charges for doing their job objectively, highlighting the importance that it cannot be subjected to individuals’ personal ideologies, beliefs or what they think may be worth publishing or not. Therefore, the journalists should not be on trial due to the nature of their work of transparency and relaying information to the public. We demand for immediate release and drop charges of journalists due to the political motivation of the current ruling party.
References
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2024/turkey
https://www.ensonhaber.com/gundem/can-dundar-almanyaya-gitti-2016-07-13
https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_Dündar
https://expressioninterrupted.com/tr/can-dundar
https://www.bbc.com/turkce/haberler/2015/11/151126_can_dundar_selin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdem_Gül
