Renowned Turkish journalist Hasan Cemal has been given a suspended sentence of 15 months for allegedly disseminating the propaganda of a terrorist organization in an article he wrote on July 11, 2016.
Cemal is a columnist with the T24 news portal and a founding member of the P24 Independent Journalism Platform.
He appeared before the İstanbul 22nd High Criminal Court on Tuesday where he was given a suspended sentence of 15 months for promoting the propaganda of a terrorist organization in his article titled “Fehman Hüseyin,” while he was acquitted of the charges of praising a crime and criminal he faced due to the same article.
Fehman Hüseyin is one of the leading operatives of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Cemal has worked extensively on Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish problem.
In his defense, Cemal denied the charges and said he only performed his job as a journalist.