Istanbul, May 24, 2019–An unidentified gunman today shot Turkish journalist Hakan Denizli in the leg, according to reports. Denizli, founder of the local daily Egemen, was taken to a hospital and the police are looking for his attacker, according to reports. The shooting, which took place outside the journalist’s home in the city of Adana, is the fourth attack on a journalist in Turkey in the past two weeks.
“This brutal attack against Hakan Denizli–the fourth assault on a journalist in two weeks–appears to signal an alarming cycle of violence against critical voices in Turkey,” said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Gulnoza Said, in New York. “We call on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to strongly condemn the attacks and to instruct his law enforcement to bring those responsible to justice and to ensure the safety of journalists.”
In the past two weeks, CPJ has also documented attacks on Ergin Çevik, chief editor of the local news website Güney Haberci, in the southern city of Antalya, on May 20; Selim Demirağ, a columnist for the nationalist daily Yeni Çağ, in Ankara, on May 10; and İdris Özyol, who was beaten outside the offices of his paper, Akdeniz’de Yeni Yüzyıl, also in Antalya on May 15. All of the attacks were in apparent retaliation for the journalists’ work, according to reports.