Turkish journalist Can Dündar escapes attempted shooting outside court
Several shots fired near court in Istanbul, where verdict was due in trial of Dündar, who is accused of revealing state secrets
The prominent Turkish journalist Can Dündar has been sentenced to more than five years in prison, shortly after surviving an attack by a gunman who attempted to shoot the newspaper editor outside a courthouse in Istanbul.
In the space of two hours we have experienced two assassination attempts. One was done with a gun, the other was judicial, Dündar said, speaking in front of the court after the verdict was announced.
The [jail sentences] we received are not just to silence us. The bullet was not just to silence us. This was done to all of us, to scare us into silence, to make us stop talking.
We all have to be courageous, despite all of this, and defend the freedom of the press and the freedom to information.
Dündar, editor-in-chief of Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, and fellow journalist Erdem Gül, its Ankara bureau chief, were acquitted on charges of trying to overthrow the government, but convicted of publishing secret state documents.
Dündar was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison and Gül to five years. Both journalists also still face charges for helping an armed organisation.
