Journalist and documentary filmmaker Hakan Tosun, who had been missing for days, was found seriously injured on the side of the road in Istanbul. According to initial findings, he was brutally beaten. Tosun suffered a brain hemorrhage and is being treated in the intensive care unit of a hospital in the Başakşehir district. His condition is considered critical.
While it is currently unclear who is behind the attack, the police have launched an investigation.
Tosun was last seen late in the evening of October 10. Since then, there has been no trace of him. His relatives subsequently filed a missing person report.
Hakan Tosun was born in Istanbul in 1975. In the early 1990s, he entered the media business as a technical consultant with the emergence of private radio stations. From 1998, he worked in Izmir for various television stations as an editing technician. Since 2009, he has devoted himself primarily to the production of independent documentaries on the environment, urban development, and social protests.
Tosun’s best-known works include Çatılara Doğru (“Up to the Roofs”), Tekel İşçileri (“Tekel Workers”), Büyük Anadolu Yürüyüşü (“The Great Anatolian March”), Dönüşüm (‘Gentrification’) and Validebağ Direnişi (“The Resistance of Validebağ”). Tosun is co-founder of the company “Documentary Film Production Nature and Urban Activism” and works there as a director.