Altun, a correspondent for the weekly newspaper Yeni Ulke, was shot five times in the back of the head while he was on his way to work in Batman. The newspaper’s editor says that Altun received death threats before his murder. Colleagues suspect that his reporting on the counterguerrillas, state forces allegedly active in southeastern Turkey, may have prompted the attack. He had written an article on that subject for Yeni Ulke‘s February 2-8 issue.