The International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of editors, media executives and journalists defending press freedom, condemned a Turkish appeals court decision upholding jail sentences given to 14 current and former journalists and staff members of the secular newspaper Cumhuriyet.

An Istanbul appeals court yesterday confirmed the sentences handed down by a lower criminal court in April 2018. Former Cumhuriyet columnist Kadri Gürsel, a member of IPI’s Executive Board and the chair of IPI’s Turkey National Committee, was sentenced to two years and six months behind bars. Gürsel previously spent 11 months in pre-trial detention. Former Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Murat Sabuncu and investigative journalist Ahmet Şık received seven years and six months each.