On December 30, exiled Turkish journalist Can Dündar revealed that he had been added to the so-called terrorist “gray list”, a database published by the Turkish Interior Ministry that identifies alleged terrorists and offers rewards for their capture.
Dündar, who reported on alleged weapon smuggling from Turkey to Syria in 2014, received CPJ’s 2016 International Press Foundaiton Aard in recognition of his work amid government repression. CPJ has identified at least 14 other members of the Turkish press living in exile who are included on the Interior Ministry’s gray list. The webpage says those journalists are wanted for their alleged ties to the exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom the Turkish government accuses of maintaining a terrorist organization and “parallel state structure,” and of masterminding a July 15, 2016, failed military coup.
“Turkish authorities should refrain from treating exiled journalists like terrorists, and should not include them on wanted lists, which are blatant attempts to intimidate journalists from doing their jobs,” said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Gulnoza Said.
Separately, at least three journalists were injured by Russian shelling in Ukraine. On December 31, Russian forces shelled Kyiv, injuring Wataru Sekita, a video reporter with the Japanese daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun. And on Monday, Russian shelling in Druzhkivka, a city in the eastern region of Donetsk, injured Björn Stritzel, a reporter with the German daily newspaper Bild, and an unidentified Ukrainian journalist.
