Sabah columnist Fatih Altayli revealed in a February 2007 piece that he had received confirmed information two days before publication that Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk planned to leave Türkiye and would not be returning soon.
According to Altayli, the tip went beyond rumor: Pamuk had withdrawn 400,000 USD from his bank account and had booked a flight to the United States. The columnist said he and his assistant debated whether to publish the story.
They ultimately chose to withhold the information, weighing what Altayli described as competing obligations: journalistic instinct versus personal responsibility. Publishing, he reasoned, could have sparked a protest at the airport, or worse, prevented Pamuk from boarding his flight.
Pamuk departed the following day without incident. Altayli closed his column by leaving readers to judge what the writer's exit might mean for Türkiye's international standing.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in February 2007, in its own words.