The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a public statement on Tuesday calling on Türkiye’s authorities to investigate the death of journalist and reporter Hakan Tosun, amid concerns that his death may have been an act of retaliation for his journalism.
On October 11, 2025, Tosun was attacked on the street and beaten unconscious by two individuals on a motorcycle. He was quickly taken to the hospital, and his family filed a missing person report after his hospitalization. Tosun was pronounced dead three days later, on October 13, from cerebral hemorrhaging. Two men, ages 18 and 24, were arrested in connection with the assault.
Disk Basin-is, one of the major national trade unions in Türkiye, pointed to irregularities in the investigation that it argues are part of a broader systemic trend of impunity for extrajudicial attacks. In particular, the union raised concerns over the fact that the attackers’ identities have not been made public, there has been no disclosure of Tosun’s belongings, it remains unclear why he was not identified at the hospital, and no officials have spoken on these issues. Footage of the attack is also fragmented, and there has been no attempt to collect fingerprints or provide clarification on the attackers’ motive. However, the IFJ report also noted that the neighbourhood where Tosun was attacked is known to have a higher-than-average crime rate.
Hakan Tosun’s journalism focused on themes of nature, ecological, and social movements. Additionally, he actively shared and recorded news events, protests, and ecological destruction as they happened on his personal X (formerly Twitter) account.
Türkiye has previously come under fire from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for arbitrarily arresting journalists in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In Sik v. Turkey, the case concerned the pre-trial detention of a journalist who had published a series of critical articles that the state alleged were supportive of Kurdish separatist and leftist political organizations, and therefore constituted support for terrorism. However, the European court found there was no sufficient basis for the detention, and that the state had violated Articles 5 and 10 of the Convention, which guarantee freedom from arbitrary state interference and freedom of expression.