The new Turkey Canan Coşkun. Cumhuriyet court reporter
21-Jan-2020 10:08
21 November 2019: Journalists Canan Coşkun, Can Uğur, Ali Açar to stand trial over 2016 report Journalists Canan Coşkun, Can Uğur and Ali Açar will stand trial over 2016 news reports published in March 2016 in Cumhuriyet daily and the online edition of BirGün newspaper about the police officer who allegedly shot Berkin Elvan. All three are charged with “making those involved in the fight against terrorism a target” in the indictment, dated 21 November 2019. The indictment claims that the news reports revealed the identity of the police officer. The trial will be overseen by the 34th High Criminal Court of Istanbul. The first hearing is set for 9 April 2020. 18 November 2019: Businessman files TL 1 mln lawsuit against Cumhuriyet newspaper Pro-government businessman Mehmet Cengiz, the chairman of Cengiz Holding, has filed a lawsuit against the Cumhuriyet newspaper, seeking TL 1 million in non-pecuniary damages over a news report published on 6 October 2019. Alev Coşkun, the newspaper’s publisher and chair of the board of Cumhuriyet Foundation, and reporter Hazal Ocak will be appearing before the 14th Anadolu Civil Court of First Instance on 8 January 2020 for the first hearing of the lawsuit. 13 November 2019: Canan Coşkun, Tuba Demir and Kazım Kızıl released after 1 day in custody Journalists Canan Coşkun and Tuba Demir and documentary filmmaker Kazım Kızıl were taken into custody on 13 November 2019 in the Eynesil district of Giresun, where they had gone to cover the Parliamentary Investigation Commission’s investigation into the suspicious death of 11-year-old Rabia Naz Vatan in 2018. The girl lost her life in the hospital after being found severely wounded in front of her house. Rabia Naz Vatan’s father Şaban Vatan was also arrested. According to the Giresun Governor’s Office, the four were arrested for locking up Mürsel Küçükal, a witness in the investigation of Rabia Naz Vatan’s death, in a studio to threaten him. After their interrogations, the four were referred to the Görele Criminal Judgeship of Peace, where they were released under judicial control measures on the night of 14 November. Besides an international travel ban, the court ruled to prohibit the four from approaching the witness’ home. 20 June 2019: Journalist Coşkun Acquitted of 'Insulting President' Canan Coşkun was on trial for her article titled, "Erdoğan Ordered, Journalists Arrested." The hearing of the case was held at the İstanbul 40th Penal Court of First Instance. Coşkun said in her defense statement that she does not accept charges. "I am the former legal reporter of the Cumhuriyet newspaper. The day the arrests were made, I wrote about the incident and sent it to my chief. I don't have the authority on how or on which page the report will be published. I am a reporter. Performing my duty, I delivered the report to relevant units. I did not commit an offense." Coşkun's attorney Abbas Yalçınsöz requested the acquittal of her client, saying that the lawsuit was filed two years after the report was published. The court ruled for the acquittal of the reporter, stating that her act does not constitute a crime according to the relevant law. (HA/VK) 24 January 2019: Journalists in court: hearings for Coşkun, Akdeniz, Yurdal The trial of Canan Coşkun, a former court reporter for the opposition daily Cumhuriyet, started in Istanbul on January 24, the news website T24 reported. Coşkun is accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a 2015 reportheadlined "Erdoğan ordered, journalism arrested," which was about the arrest of Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül. Coşkun's lawyers told the court the case should be dropped because it was filed after the statute of limitations had passed, according to the report. In Turkey, charges over something published in a daily newspaper must be filed within two months. The lawyers added that their client should not be held responsible for how her reporting was used in the newspaper and its website, and asked for her to be acquitted. The next hearing is scheduled for June 20, T24 reported. The journalist is free pending the outcome of her trial. 1 October 2018: Two more journalists part ways with Cumhuriyet Canan Coşkun, a legal affairs reporter facing years in prison for a report on Turkish judicial officials, and finance editor and reporter Pelin Ünker are the latest in a wave of journalists parting ways with secularist daily Cumhuriyet since it restructured its editorial staff in September. Coşkun announced her break with Cumhuriyet on Twitter, saying she would remember the newspaper fondly. The legal affairs reporter was hit with a sentence of 2 years and 3 months for “targeting officials involved in the fight against terrorism” after she reported that a lottery to select homebuyers for a coveted project in Istanbul had been rigged in favour of members of the judiciary. Ünker has also run into legal trouble for her part in reporting on large transactions in overseas tax havens conducted by former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım’s sons, as revealed in the Paradise Papers data leak. The pair have followed dozens of other renowned journalists who have parted ways with the newspaper after it announced a new editorial board headed by controversial figures including Alev Coşkun, who was alleged to have sent anonymous denunciations to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan which were used as evidence in trials against Cumhuriyet staff. Fifteen staff members of the newspaper, including former editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, were given long prison sentences in April for allegedly supporting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant Kurdish group, and the Gülen movement, a religious organisation blamed for plotting the July 2016 coup attempt. Both groups are designated as terrorist organisations by Turkey. Source 19 July 2018: Turkish court sentences Cumhuriyet journalist to two years in 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, the paper said. The case was triggered by an article written by Canan Coşkun last September about prosecutors’ questioning detained lawyers for two hunger-striking teachers allegedly linked to the far-leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C) militant group, viewed as a terror network by Turkey. The court found out that Coşkun, who covered Istanbul courts as her beat, made “people involved in the fight against terrorism a target,” Cumhuriyet said. A lawyer for Coşkun told the court the naming of a prosecutor in that article did not amount to making that person a target and denied the charges against her, rights group Amnesty International reported on Twitter. “Another punishment for press freedom,” main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Sezgin Tanrıkulu, who attended the hearing, wrote on Twitter. “Writing a story and being a journalist is sufficient for a court to take a ‘negative view,’” said Tanrıkulu. In April, a Turkish court sentenced 14 Cumhuriyet staffers to jail on charges of terrorism and supporting the network of Fethullah Gülen, a U.S.-based cleric blamed for organizing an attempted coup on July 15, 2016. Since the attempted putsch, more than 120 journalists have been detained and more than 180 media outlets have closed on suspicion of links to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ). Free speech advocacy group Reporters Without Borders in April ranked Turkey 157 out of 180 countries in its annual report on global press freedom and estimated about 90 percent of Turkey’s newspaper coverage is pro-government. Source Cumhuriyet reporter gets 27-month in prison for ‘endangering counterterrorism operations’ An İstanbul court has handed down a sentence of two years, three months to Cumhuriyet daily justice reporter Canan Coşkun on charges of “endangering the personnel working in counterterrorism operations” due to a report she wrote. Coşkun was given the jail sentence during a hearing at the İstanbul 26th High Criminal Court on Thursday because she wrote the name of a prosecutor in one of her reports. The court did not suspend the journalist’s jail sentence or reduce it. In her defense, Coşkun denied the charges and said she would continue to perform her job in the only way she knows because she believes it is necessary for “social memory.” Source 6 June 2018: Trial of Cumhuriyet journalist adjourned First hearing in the trial of Cumhuriyet court reporter Canan Coşkun was held on 6 June at the Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court. Coşkun faces up to three years in jail under Article 6 of the Anti-Terror Law for a September 2017 report on the arrest of several lawyers. She is charged with “jeopardizing the trial, exposing the witness in the case and his family and turning them into targets of terrorist organizations” for mentioning the prosecutor and the witness in the case against the lawyers by their names. At the hearing followed by P24, Coşkun presented her defense statement, saying the name of the witness was openly written in the court documents and there was no indication that he was a secret witness. Coşkun also said there was not a single photograph of the witness or any member of his family in the report to justify the prosecutor’s claim that the report exposed the witness and his family. “Let alone pictures, there is not a single word about family of the witness,” she said. Coşkun’s lawyer Bülent Utku objected to the prosecutor’s claim that the investigation was put at risk by Coşkun’s report. He emphasized that the witness mentioned by name in the story was not a secret lawyer and added that Coşkun only acted as a journalist. The court ruled to relay the case file to the prosecutor so that he could prepare his final opinion on the case and adjourned the trial until 10 July. *Source

The new Turkey
Canan Coşkun.
Cumhuriyet court reporter

21-Jan-2020 10:08

21 November 2019:

Journalists Canan Coşkun, Can Uğur, Ali Açar to stand trial over 2016 report

Journalists Canan Coşkun, Can Uğur and Ali Açar will stand trial over 2016 news reports published in March 2016 in Cumhuriyet daily and the online edition of BirGün newspaper about the police officer who allegedly shot Berkin Elvan. All three are charged with “making those involved in the fight against terrorism a target” in the indictment, dated 21 November 2019. The indictment claims that the news reports revealed the identity of the police officer. The trial will be overseen by the 34th High Criminal Court of Istanbul. The first hearing is set for 9 April 2020.

18 November 2019:

Businessman files TL 1 mln lawsuit against Cumhuriyet newspaper

Pro-government businessman Mehmet Cengiz, the chairman of Cengiz Holding, has filed a lawsuit against the Cumhuriyet newspaper, seeking TL 1 million in non-pecuniary damages over a news report published on 6 October 2019.

Alev Coşkun, the newspaper’s publisher and chair of the board of Cumhuriyet Foundation, and reporter Hazal Ocak will be appearing before the 14th Anadolu Civil Court of First Instance on 8 January 2020 for the first hearing of the lawsuit.

13 November 2019:

Canan Coşkun, Tuba Demir and Kazım Kızıl released after 1 day in custody

Journalists Canan Coşkun and Tuba Demir and documentary filmmaker Kazım Kızıl were taken into custody on 13 November 2019 in the Eynesil district of Giresun, where they had gone to cover the Parliamentary Investigation Commission’s investigation into the suspicious death of 11-year-old Rabia Naz Vatan in 2018. The girl lost her life in the hospital after being found severely wounded in front of her house. Rabia Naz Vatan’s father Şaban Vatan was also arrested.

According to the Giresun Governor’s Office, the four were arrested for locking up Mürsel Küçükal, a witness in the investigation of Rabia Naz Vatan’s death, in a studio to threaten him.

After their interrogations, the four were referred to the Görele Criminal Judgeship of Peace, where they were released under judicial control measures on the night of 14 November. Besides an international travel ban, the court ruled to prohibit the four from approaching the witness’ home.

20 June 2019:

Journalist Coşkun Acquitted of 'Insulting President'
Canan Coşkun was on trial for her article titled, "Erdoğan Ordered, Journalists Arrested."

The hearing of the case was held at the İstanbul 40th Penal Court of First Instance. Coşkun said in her defense statement that she does not accept charges.

"I am the former legal reporter of the Cumhuriyet newspaper. The day the arrests were made, I wrote about the incident and sent it to my chief. I don't have the authority on how or on which page the report will be published. I am a reporter. Performing my duty, I delivered the report to relevant units. I did not commit an offense."

Coşkun's attorney Abbas Yalçınsöz requested the acquittal of her client, saying that the lawsuit was filed two years after the report was published. The court ruled for the acquittal of the reporter, stating that her act does not constitute a crime according to the relevant law. (HA/VK)

24 January 2019:

Journalists in court: hearings for Coşkun, Akdeniz, Yurdal

The trial of Canan Coşkun, a former court reporter for the opposition daily Cumhuriyet, started in Istanbul on January 24, the news website T24 reported. Coşkun is accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a 2015 reportheadlined "Erdoğan ordered, journalism arrested," which was about the arrest of Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül. Coşkun's lawyers told the court the case should be dropped because it was filed after the statute of limitations had passed, according to the report.

In Turkey, charges over something published in a daily newspaper must be filed within two months. The lawyers added that their client should not be held responsible for how her reporting was used in the newspaper and its website, and asked for her to be acquitted. The next hearing is scheduled for June 20, T24 reported. The journalist is free pending the outcome of her trial.

1 October 2018:

Two more journalists part ways with Cumhuriyet

Canan Coşkun, a legal affairs reporter facing years in prison for a report on Turkish judicial officials, and finance editor and reporter Pelin Ünker are the latest in a wave of journalists parting ways with secularist daily Cumhuriyet since it restructured its editorial staff in September.

Coşkun announced her break with Cumhuriyet on Twitter, saying she would remember the newspaper fondly.
The legal affairs reporter was hit with a sentence of 2 years and 3 months for “targeting officials involved in the fight against terrorism” after she reported that a lottery to select homebuyers for a coveted project in Istanbul had been rigged in favour of members of the judiciary.

Ünker has also run into legal trouble for her part in reporting on large transactions in overseas tax havens conducted by former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım’s sons, as revealed in the Paradise Papers data leak.

The pair have followed dozens of other renowned journalists who have parted ways with the newspaper after it announced a new editorial board headed by controversial figures including Alev Coşkun, who was alleged to have sent anonymous denunciations to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan which were used as evidence in trials against Cumhuriyet staff.

Fifteen staff members of the newspaper, including former editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, were given long prison sentences in April for allegedly supporting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant Kurdish group, and the Gülen movement, a religious organisation blamed for plotting the July 2016 coup attempt. Both groups are designated as terrorist organisations by Turkey. Source

19 July 2018:

Turkish court sentences Cumhuriyet journalist to two years in 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, the paper said.

The case was triggered by an article written by Canan Coşkun last September about prosecutors’ questioning detained lawyers for two hunger-striking teachers allegedly linked to the far-leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C) militant group, viewed as a terror network by Turkey.

The court found out that Coşkun, who covered Istanbul courts as her beat, made “people involved in the fight against terrorism a target,” Cumhuriyet said.

A lawyer for Coşkun told the court the naming of a prosecutor in that article did not amount to making that person a target and denied the charges against her, rights group Amnesty International reported on Twitter.

“Another punishment for press freedom,” main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Sezgin Tanrıkulu, who attended the hearing, wrote on Twitter.

“Writing a story and being a journalist is sufficient for a court to take a ‘negative view,’” said Tanrıkulu.

In April, a Turkish court sentenced 14 Cumhuriyet staffers to jail on charges of terrorism and supporting the network of Fethullah Gülen, a U.S.-based cleric blamed for organizing an attempted coup on July 15, 2016.

Since the attempted putsch, more than 120 journalists have been detained and more than 180 media outlets have closed on suspicion of links to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).

Free speech advocacy group Reporters Without Borders in April ranked Turkey 157 out of 180 countries in its annual report on global press freedom and estimated about 90 percent of Turkey’s newspaper coverage is pro-government. Source

Cumhuriyet reporter gets 27-month in prison for ‘endangering counterterrorism operations’

An İstanbul court has handed down a sentence of two years, three months to Cumhuriyet daily justice reporter Canan Coşkun on charges of “endangering the personnel working in counterterrorism operations” due to a report she wrote.

Coşkun was given the jail sentence during a hearing at the İstanbul 26th High Criminal Court on Thursday because she wrote the name of a prosecutor in one of her reports. The court did not suspend the journalist’s jail sentence or reduce it.

In her defense, Coşkun denied the charges and said she would continue to perform her job in the only way she knows because she believes it is necessary for “social memory.” Source

6 June 2018:
Trial of Cumhuriyet journalist adjourned

First hearing in the trial of Cumhuriyet court reporter Canan Coşkun was held on 6 June at the Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court. Coşkun faces up to three years in jail under Article 6 of the Anti-Terror Law for a September 2017 report on the arrest of several lawyers. She is charged with “jeopardizing the trial, exposing the witness in the case and his family and turning them into targets of terrorist organizations” for mentioning the prosecutor and the witness in the case against the lawyers by their names.

At the hearing followed by P24, Coşkun presented her defense statement, saying the name of the witness was openly written in the court documents and there was no indication that he was a secret witness. Coşkun also said there was not a single photograph of the witness or any member of his family in the report to justify the prosecutor’s claim that the report exposed the witness and his family. “Let alone pictures, there is not a single word about family of the witness,” she said.

Coşkun’s lawyer Bülent Utku objected to the prosecutor’s claim that the investigation was put at risk by Coşkun’s report. He emphasized that the witness mentioned by name in the story was not a secret lawyer and added that Coşkun only acted as a journalist.

The court ruled to relay the case file to the prosecutor so that he could prepare his final opinion on the case and adjourned the trial until 10 July.

*Source

The new Turkey Canan Coşkun. Cumhuriyet court reporter

Two more journalists part ways with Cumhuriyet

Turkish court sentences Cumhuriyet journalist to two years in jail

Cumhuriyet reporter gets 27-month in prison for ‘endangering counterterrorism operations’

The new Turkey
Canan Coşkun.
Cumhuriyet court reporter