Kilinc, editor-in-chief of the Kurdish daily Azadiya Welat, Turkey’s sole Kurdish-language daily, was charged under the country’s Anti-Terror Law with spreading propaganda for the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
A criminal court in Diyarbakir sentenced the journalist to 21 years in prison, the BBC reported. Yuksekova Haber, a local news website, said Kilinc was being held at Diyarbakir Prison. Verdat Kurşun, a predecessor in the paper’s top editorial post, was also in prison when CPJ conducted its annual census on December 1.