Slain newspaper editor “knew he was in danger”

Ismail Cihan Hayirsevener, a leading local newspaper and TV journalist who was gunned down on 18 December in the northwestern city of Bandirma, knew his life was in danger, Reporters Without Borders has been told by colleagues and friends. The editor of the newspaper Güney Maramara Yasam (Life on the South of Marmara) and news editor at Marmara TV, a local station, Hayirsevener was shot three times by an unidentified gunman as he walked down a Bandirma street. Marmara TV managing editor Ümit Babacan said both he and Hayirsevener had received threats in the form of letters and articles in the local newspapers and had been given police protection. Ekrem Balibek, the owner of the newspaper Yeni Haber, said he was convinced that Hayirsevener was killed because of his work and because of the views he had expressed. “All 69 of the journalists murdered in the course of the Turkish media’s history were killed because of their views and what they wrote,” he said. The leading national daily Hürriyet said Hayirsevener often covered local corruption stories. His colleagues said he had been threatened on several occasions, especially since starting to cover corruption allegations involving the Bandirma municipal authorities and the owners of three local newspapers, who have been jailed. One of these newspaper editors is Ihsan Kuruoglu, who has been arrested along with his son and his brother in connection with alleged kickbacks in the award of local contracts. Hayirsevener had been investigating the origin of these kickbacks immediately prior to his death. “Hayirsevener’s murder serves as reminder that, every day, hundreds of reporters come under intense pressure from local businessmen, officials, prosecutors and policemen in the course of trying to do their duty to report the news,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Mistrust of the press and the frequency of prosecutions and convictions, often with severe sentences, mean that journalists are easy targets.” A ceremony was organised in Bandirma on 20 December to pay tribute to Hayirsevener, whose body was taken to Istanbul for burial. Ramazan Demir, the president of the Balikesir Province Journalists Association, urged journalists not be intimidated and to “take their pens as Cihan did and use them against the gangsters, the enemies of democracy and those who are ruining the nation.” Balibek, Yeni Haber’s owner, said he had known Hayirsevener since 2000 and described his personality as combative. “He was a man of opinion,” he said. “I hope that we, the journalists and inhabitants of Bandirma, will realise his importance for all of us. His death is not just a loss for Bandirma and Balikesir but for all of Turkey.” According to an unconfirmed report on the Bandirmahaber.net local website yesterday, the police have arrested three men on suspicion of involvement in Hayirsevener’s murder and have seized what they believe is the murder weapon. Ballistic tests are currently being carried out on the gun. Aged 53, Hayirsevener was shot three times in the legs at around 3 p.m. on 18 December as he was walking down Bandirma’s Atatürk Boulevard by a gunman who immediately left in car. One of the shots ruptured an artery in his left leg, causing him to lose a lot of blood. He died while being taken to Bursa hospital. Before losing consciousness, he reportedly said: “I know who shot me.” A graduate of the Istanbul Academy of Economic Sciences, Hayirsevener had been a journalist for 30 years. He began in 1980, working for the daily Dünya (The World). He then worked for Hürriyet (Freedom) and the regional daily Karadeniz before moving to Bandirma in 1999 and launching Güney Marmara Yasam.