Turkish newspaper reporter sentenced to over 2 years jail

A Turkish court sentenced a daily Cumhuriyet reporter to more than two years in jail on July 19 over charges of making people potential targets for militant groups through her reporting
Thursday, 19 July 2018 19:15

An Istanbul court sentenced the judicial correspondent of the Cumhuriyet newspaper to more than two years in jail on Thursday on charges of making people potential targets for militant groups through her reporting.

Canan Coskun was sentenced by the Istanbul criminal court to two years and three months jail.

The case was triggered by an article which she wrote last September about prosecutors' questioning of detained lawyers for two hunger-striking teachers allegedly linked to the leftist DHKP-C militant group, designated a terrorist group by Turkey.

Coskun was convicted of presenting as a "target" state officials who were involved in the "fight against terror".

Amnesty International said she had named a prosecutor and witnesses in the case against lawyers who were defending two hunger-striking activists sacked from their jobs in teaching under Turkey's state of emergency.

The educators Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça eventually ended a 10-month hunger strike earlier this year after being released from detention.

There are 178 journalists detained in Turkey, most of them jailed under the state of emergency.