Bülent Şık is a Turkish food engineer, environmental and human rights activist and a whistleblower. He was convicted after disclosing the results from a government study on environmental pollution and carcinogens.

Early life and education

Career

Şık has worked at

Akdeniz University Akdeniz University () is a public research university established in Antalya, Turkey. It has been chosen as the second most beautiful university in Turkey, after Boğaziçi University. It is one of the leading educational institutions in the co ...

in Antalya, where he was a deputy director of the Food Safety and Agricultural Research Center. In the early 2010s, Şık worked on a 5-year research project for the Turkey's Ministry of Health investigating a possible relation between the high incidence of cancer in western Turkey ( Kocaeli,

Tekirdağ Tekirdağ () is a city in northwestern Turkey. It is located on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara, in the region of East Thrace. The city forms the urban part of the Süleymanpaşa district, with a population of 186,421 in 2022. Tekirdağ ...

Kırklareli Kırklareli () is a city in the East Thrace, European part of Turkey. It is the seat of Kırklareli Province and Kırklareli District.Edirne Edirne (; ), historically known as Orestias, Adrianople, is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the Edirne Province, province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second c ...

and

Antalya Antalya is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey and the capital of Antalya Province. Recognized as the "capital of tourism" in Turkey and a pivotal part of the Turkish Riviera, Antalya sits on Anatolia's southwest coast, flanked by the Tau ...

) and toxicity in local soil, water, and food. Şık found dangerous levels of toxicity in a number of food and water samples, concluding that water in several residential areas is unsafe for drinking. In 2015, he reported his findings to the government. In 2016, he was fired from his university position as assistant professor by a presidential decree-law after signing a petition "calling for peace between Turkish forces and Kurdish militants in southeast Turkey". In April 2018, as no action was taken on the water pollution for three years, Şık published his findings in the opposition newspaper ''

Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: "Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Press ...

''. After the publication, the Turkish government claimed the newspaper publication violated the confidentiality clauses prohibiting to reveal the findings unless approved by the authorities, but it did not deny the accuracy of information. Subsequently the Ministry of Health sued Şık for "revealing confidential information as well as provoking outrage among the public". On 26 September 2019, Şık was sentenced to 15 months in jail for "disclosing information about duty" while he has been acquitted of "providing prohibited information".

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

has criticized the trial, describing Şık as a

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

. In 2025 April, the 13th penal Chamber of the Istanbul regional Court of Appeals acquitted him.

Private life

Bülent Şık is the brother of

Ahmet Şık Ahmet Şık (; born 1970, Adana) is a Turkish investigative journalist, the author of several books, a trade unionist, and member of Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Parliament in Turkey.Details othis website; accessed on 11 April 2011 His book, ...

, a journalist and an opposition party member of Parliament.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sik, Bulent Living people 20th-century births Food engineers Turkish engineering academics Academic staff of Akdeniz University Cancer researchers Turkish environmentalists Turkish human rights activists Turkish whistleblowers Turkish prisoners and detainees Year of birth missing (living people)