In Turkey, a journalist was killed outside his office
Turkish journalist, Güngör Arslan
According to Turkish media outlets, a journalist who owned a local news website in northwestern Turkey was shot dead in front of his office on Saturday.
Güngör Arslan was attacked by a gunman near the Zmit district of Kocaeli province over the weekend. An injured journalist died from his injuries at a nearby hospital after he was critically injured.
The suspect told police that he killed the journalist because he didn't like the views in one of his articles without providing any further details.
Arslan was buried in Kocaeli on Sunday.
As the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also condemned the shooting, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia coordinator Gulnoza Said stated, "We call on Turkish authorities to launch a transparent investigation into the circumstances surrounding journalist Güngör Arslan's death and determine whether journalism was a possible motive for the shooting."
The assailant, identified as Ramazan Ö., was detained following the attack, Kocaeli Governor Seddar Yavuz announced. He also said an investigation had been launched into the attack to find the motivation behind it.
In the last article he wrote for his seskocaeli.com news website on Feb. 18, Arslan criticized Kocaeli Mayor Tahir Büyükakın, from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), for awarding a public tender to a pro-government company, Haldız Construction. The journalist also wrote about allegations made a competitor, Zeray Construction, which was eliminated from the tender, saying the mayor should respond to Zeray’s questions about irregularities in the bidding process.
Arslan’s murder led to outrage among press organizations in Turkey, where journalists are frequently subjected to physical attacks and legal harassment due to their work. The press organizations called on the government to investigate Arslan’s murder and bring the perpetrators to justice.
“The fact that police apprehended the suspect and found a weapon is promising. Now they must ensure that everyone involved in the killing, including any potential masterminds, are brought to justice.”
Turkey, which has dropped precipitously since it was ranked 100th among 139 countries when Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published its first worldwide index in 2002, when the AKP government came to power, was ranked 153rd out of 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
