Can Dundar, the former editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, one of Turkey's main newspapers, discussed the press freedom situation in his native country during an interview with FRANCE 24. "If you are challenging the government's interests, you are branded a terrorist or a traitor," he said. Dundar added that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was trying to create chaos in a bid to win the next elections, scheduled for June 2023.
Dundar was sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison for publishing a video purporting to show Turkish arms being smuggled to jihadists in Syria. He fled to Germany in 2016 following an attempt on his life during his trial.
