Cumhuriyet

The secular paper Cumhuriyet was founded in 1924 upon the initiative of state founder Atatürk as the first newspaper of the Turkish Republic. It is currently owned by a foundation. Seven of the paper's authors have been murdered since 1978. In April 2018, several editors critical of the government were sentenced to long prison terms for supporting terrorism, but were acquitted by an appeals court in 2019. Former editor-in-chief Can Dündar, who campaigned for a liberal editorial approach, and has been accused on several occasions, is currently living in exile in Germany. In September 2019, after a long internal power struggle, the foundation's board of directors was replaced; since then, its editorial policies are markedly more Kemalist again.