Freedom of Expression and the Press in Turkey – 161

  
The 2nd Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice has written its reasoned judgment concerning its rejection of the appeals against the aggravated life sentences given to Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan, Nazlı Ilıcak and their three co-defendants on “coup” charges.
 
The 42-page reasoned judgment of the appellate court was made public on 17 October by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
 
Lawyers representing Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan issued a public statement in relation to the appellate court’s judgment, asserting that neither Turkey’s Constitutional Court nor the European Court of Human Rights had found incriminating evidence in the file.
 
Noting that procedural provisions and the principle of a fair trial were disregarded throughout the proceedings, the lawyers also wrote that the offense of “violating the constitution” as defined under “Article 309/1 of the Turkish Criminal Code, was subjected to a de facto modification in defiance of the intention of the legislative body.”
 
An English translation of the statement can be accessed here.
 
“Espionage” case against Alayumat and Akman adjourned
 
The fourth hearing in the trial against former Dicle media news agency (Dihaber) reporters Erdoğan Alayumat and Nuri Akman on “espionage” and “terrorist group membership” charges took place on 19 October in Hatay.
 
Alayumat and Akman did not attend the hearing at the 2nd High Criminal Court of Hatay. The court ruled to adjourn the trial awaiting response from the Turkish General Staff and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) concerning a writ in which the court inquired about the photographs on which the charges against the journalists are based.
 
“Insulting the president” case adjourned until December
 
The 10th hearing in a trial where columnist and author Perihan Mağden and journalists Tunca Öğreten, Orhan Şahin and Mehmet Çağlar Tekin stand accused of “insulting the president” took place on 18 October at the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance.
 
The charges stem from an interview with Mağden, posted on September 14, 2015, on the news portal Diken. Tekin is on trial for posting the same interview on the website of the Yurt newspaper.
 
Öğreten made his defense statement during the hearing. Telling the court that the interview did not involve any insulting remarks, Öğreten requested for his acquittal.
 
In its interim ruling at the end of the hearing, the court decided to inquire of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office the responsible managing editor of Yurt newspaper at the time and to whom the editor reported to and adjourned the trial until 27 December 2018.
 
Yasin Kobulan to stand trial on “propaganda” charge
 
Mezopotamya news agency (MA) reporter Yasin Kobulan will be standing trial on the charge of “disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organization” for his social media posts.
 
An indictment issued recently by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office alleges that Kobulan “shared posts that made Turkish military’s operations targeting terrorists in Southeast [Turkey] to look as though they were massacres, and that legitimized the terrorist group’s actions that involved violence.”
 
The prosecution seeks up to 13 years imprisonment for Kobulan. He will appear before the 30th High Criminal Court of Istanbul on 26 December for the first hearing of his trial.
 
Trial into Meşale Tolu and 26 others adjourned until January
 
The latest hearing in a trial where 27 people including Etkin news agency (ETHA) reporter Meşale Tolu and her husband, Suat Çorlu, a member of the central executive board of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), stand accused of terrorism-related charges, was held on 16 October at the 29th High Criminal Court of Istanbul.
 
Tolu was arrested and subsequently jailed pending trial in 2017 as part of the case. She is accused of being a member of the banned left-wing Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP). She was released under judicial control measures after 7.5 months of imprisonment at the end of the second hearing of the trial in December. Her travel ban was lifted in August.
 
Addressing the court during the hearing, Tolu, a German citizen, requested that her husband’s international travel ban be lifted.
 
In its interim ruling issued at the end of the hearing, the court decided to lift the judicial control measures imposed on defendants Suat Çorlu and Mukaddes Erdoğdu Çelik, setting 10 January 2019 as the date for the next hearing.
 
Video activist Oktay İnce briefly detained, his archive confiscated
 
Oktay İnce, an Izmir-based video activist from the collective Seyri Sokak, was taken into custody on 16 October following a police raid on his home.
 
The raid was conducted on allegations that İnce “disseminated propaganda for TİKKO” through his video work — TİKKO being the acronym for the militant group “the Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey.” Police searched İnce’s house and confiscated İnce’s entire archive of videos in which he documented demonstrations. İnce was then taken to the local police station to give his statement, after which he was released.
 
Court seeks Red Notice alerts for Can Dündar, İlhan Tanır
 
An Istanbul court on 16 October ruled that Turkey asks Interpol to issue Red Notice alerts for exiled journalists Can Dündar and İlhan Tanır as part of the “Cumhuriyet trial.”
 
Dündar, Cumhuriyet’s former editor-in-chief, and Tanır, the newspaper’s former Washington correspondent, were among defendants in the case, but did not appear in court, and arrest warrants are still in place against both journalists.
 
The 27th High Criminal Court of Istanbul had separated their files at the end of the final hearing in the “Cumhuriyet trial” on 25 April after it announced its verdicts concerning the rest of the defendants in the case.
 
The same day, another court in Istanbul overseeing another case against Dündar convicted the journalist. Istanbul’s 16th Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced Dündar to TL 10,000 in non-pecuniary damages “for insulting the president in his newspaper columns and in a series of articles.”
 
“Incitement” case against local journalists, politician, adjourned
 
The latest hearing in a trial where journalists from two local newspapers in the Aegean town of Didim stand accused of “incitement” for publishing a press statement by local representatives from Turkey’s Labour Party (EMEP), took place on 16 October.
 
The statement by EMEP representatives was about Turkey’s military operation on the Syrian city of Afrin.
 
Mustafa Öge, the owner of Didim Özgürses, Ergün Korkmaz, who owns the newspaper Mavi Didim, and Erdem Özden, its reporter, as well as the district chair of EMEP, Kazım Temiz, attended the hearing at the Didim 1st Criminal Court of First Instance.
 
Öge made his defense statement during the hearing, rejecting the accusation and requesting for his acquittal. Following the defense statements, the court announced its interim ruling, adjourning the trial until 25 january 2019.
 
Nurcan Baysal delivers defense statement in “incitement” case
 
Journalist and author Nurcan Baysal on 16 October appeared before a court in Diyarbakır for the second hearing of a trial in which she stands accused of “openly inciting the public to hatred and animosity” through her social media posts.
 
The accusation stems from Baysal’s Twitter posts critical of Turkey’s military operation on Afrin, for which she was arrested for three days back in January. Baysal faces up to three years in prison if convicted.
 
P24 monitored the hearing at the Diyarbakır 7th Criminal Court of First Instance.
 
In her defense statement, Baysal rejected the accusation and told the court that the posts for which she was indicted were aimed at calling for peace and at criticizing the government’s foreign policy.
 
Addressing the court following Baysal, her lawyer, Reyhan Yalçındağ Baydemir made references to ECtHR’s judgments in favor of the right to freedom of expression and also submitted to the court a judgment by the 10th High Criminal Court of Antalya, which acquitted the defendant in a trial with similar facts, as precedent.
 
In its interim ruling announced at the end of the hearing, the court adjourned the trial until 14 February 2019 for the final defense statement to be prepared.
 
Former Evrensel reporter to stand trial for covering 2014 demonstration
 
Thirty-eight people who took part in a 2014 demonstration in Izmir in protest of the government in the aftermath of the graft probes publicly known as “17-25 December,” and a journalist who was at the scene to cover the demonstration, will be standing trial on the charge of “violating the Law on Demonstrations and Public Marches” almost four years after the demonstration.
 
Nineteen demonstrators had been detained and an investigation had been launched into the participants at the time. The investigation also covered journalist Eda Aktaş, who was a reporter for Evrensel at the time.
 
The investigation resulted in an indictment, which also accuses the demonstrators of “destroying public and private property, and resisting and obstructing law enforcement officers.”
 
The first hearing of the case is scheduled for 14 January 2019 at the 22nd Criminal Court of First Instance.
 
Teacher Ayşe Çelik’s sentence suspended for another 6 months
 
A 15-month prison sentence given to school teacher Ayşe Çelik in 2017 has been suspended by an additional six months.
 
Çelik was convicted in 2017 of “disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organization” for her remarks on a live TV show in 2016. She was imprisoned on April 20 to serve that sentence. Çelik was released on probation in May, when the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office agreed to suspend her sentence by six months.
 
The current probation term for Çelik will end on 17 April 2019.
 
Academic given jail term for “propaganda,” sentence deferred
 
An Istanbul court on 16 October convicted one more academic of “conducting propaganda for a terrorist organization” for signing a 2016 declaration by the Academics for Peace initiative. The 36th High Criminal Court of Istanbul sentenced Koç University academic B.C.B. to a prison term of 1 year and 3 months at the third and final hearing of the trial. The court deferred the sentence.
 
Musician Ülker Sarı jailed on “propaganda” charge
 
Ülker Sarı, a member of the music band Vardiya, was jailed pending trial on 16 October in Istanbul. Sarı had been taken into custody a day before on grounds of a search warrant that came up during a criminal record check (GBT) by the police. Sarı is charged with “conducting propaganda for a terrorist organization by way of the demonstrations and other events he had taken part in” in 2013.
 
Factory worker jailed on “insulting the president” charge
 
A factory worker who goes by the initials S.K. was jailed pending trial in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ on the accusation that he “insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on social media.” S.K. was arrested in his house in the town of Çorlu based on a warrant issued by the prosecutor. He was brought before a court, which jailed the worker.
 
List of journalists and media workers in prison
 
As of 19 October 2018, at least 176 journalists and other media workers are in prison in Turkey either in pretrial detention or serving a sentence.
 
The full list can be accessed here.
 
1                Abdulkadir Turay, DİHA reporter
2                Abdullah Dirican, Zaman local news editor
3                Abdullah Kaya, DİHA
4                Abdullah Kılıç, Habertürk
5                Abdullah Özyurt, Zaman reporter
6                Abdulvahap İş, freelance journalist
7                Adil Demirci, ETHA reporter
8                Ahmet Altan
9                Ahmet Feyzullah Özyurt
10              Ahmet Memiş, Haberdar news website
11              Ahmet Metin Sekizkardeş, Zaman
12              Ahmet Yavaş, TRT (Erzurum)
13              Ali Ahmet Böken, TRT News coordinator
14              Ali Akkuş, Zaman
15              Ali Aşikar, Azadiya Welat
16              Ali Babür Boysal, Zaman page designer
17              Ali Sönmez Kayar, ETHA reporter
18              Ali Ünal, Zaman columnist
19              Ali Yüce, TRT Radio broadcasts chief
20              Arafat Dayan, Demokratik Ulus
21              Aslı Ceren Aslan, Özgür Gelecek
22              Ayşe Nazlı Ilıcak
23              Ayşenur Parıldak, Zaman, Haberdar
24              Aytekin Gezici, journalist/writer
25              Aziz İstegün, Diyarbakır Zaman representative
26              Bayram Kaya, Zaman reporter
27              Behram Kılıç
28              Beytullah Demir, Cihan news agency deputy general director
29              Beytullah Özdemir, Zaman Düzce bureau chief
30              Burçin Dokgöz, former Zaman and Çorum reporter
31              Cemal Azmi Kalyoncu, Journalists and Writers’ Foundation
32              Cemal Tunç, Gün Matbaacılık employee
33              Ceren Taşkın, Hatay'ın Sesi
34              Cuma Ulus, Millet newspaper’s publications coordinator
35              Cumali Çaygeç, TRT Şeş news director
36              Cüneyt Seza Özkan, Samanyolu TV
37              Çetin Kurşun, Azadiya Welat
38              Deniz Bakır, Atılım editor in chief
39              Doğan Baran, Odak magazine owner, managing editor
40              Ece Sevim Öztürk, Çağdaş Ses editor in chief
41              Emin Demir, freelancer
42              Emre Soncan, Zaman defense reporter
43              Ercan Gün, Fox TV
44              Erdal Süsem, Eylül magazine editor
45              Erdal Şen, former Meydan managing editor
46              Erdoğan Zamur, Gün Matbaacılık employee
47              Erol Yüksel, TRT News Department vice president
48              Erol Zavar, Odak magazine owner and newsroom director
49              Fahri Öztoprak, Cihan/Zaman Samsun correspondent
50              Faruk Akkan, Cihan news agency
51              Ferhat Çiftçi, Azadiya Welat Gaziantep bureau chief
52              Ferhat Haldun Pehlivan, ETHA intern reporter
53              Ferhat Parlak, Silvan Mücadele newspaper owner
54              Fevzi Yazıcı, Zaman chief designer
55              Gökçe Fırat Çulhaoğlu, Türksolu columnist
56              Gurbet Çakar, Hevi women’s magazine
57              Gültekin Avcı
58              Habip Güler, Zaman reporter
59              Hakan Aksel, TRT producer-director
60              Hakan Ergün, Azadiya Welat and Özgür Gündem distributor
61              Hakan Taşdelen
62              Halil İbrahim Mert, TRT (Erzurum)
63              Hamit Dilbahar, Azadiya Welat columnist
64              Hamza Günerigök, TRT
65              Hanım Büşra Erdal, Zaman reporter and columnist
66              Hasan Bzokurt, Bugün reporter
67              Hasan Duman, Özgürlükçü Demokrasi distributor
68              Hasan Hüseyin Örs, former TRT production-broadcast operator
69              Hasan Taşar, former TRT Ankara reporter
70              Hatice Duman, Atılım newspaper owner and managing editor
71              Haydar Ergül, Demokratik Modernite editor
72              Hicran Ürün, Özgürlükçü Demokrasi editor
73              Hidayet Karaca, Samanyolu Media Group president
74              Hüseyin Aydın, Cihan reporter
75              İbrahim Halil Öztürkeri, former TRT production-broadcast operator
76              İdris Okur, Cihan New Agency Çorum reporter
77              İdris Sayılgan, DİHA
78              İdris Yılmaz
79              İhsan Sinmiş, Gün Matbaacılık employee
80              İhsan Yaşar, Özgürlükçü Demokrasi owner
81              İrfan Karaca, Gün Matbaacılık employee
82              İshak Yasul, Özgürlükçü Demokrasi responsible managing editor
83              İsmail Çoban, former Azadiya Welat managing editor
84              İsmail Ersan, Anatolia news agency
85              İsminaz Temel, ETHA editor
86              Kamuran Sunbat, former DİHA Çukurova reporter
87              Kasım Zengin, owner of Gün Matbaacılık
88              Kazım Canlan, Cihan news agency Ankara news director
89              Kazım Göçer, Gün Matbaacılık employee
90              Kemal Demir, TV 10
91              Kemal Özer, Evrensel
92              Kemal Sancılı, Özgür Gündem copyrights holder
93              Kenan Karavil, Radyo Dünya editor-in-chief
94              Kibriye Evren, JinNews reporter
95              Kubilay Çelik, Antropolog magazine responsible managing editor
96              Mahmut Abay, Gün Matbaacılık employee
97              Max Zirngast, Re:volt magazine
98              Mehmet Ali Ay
99              Mehmet Ali Çelebi, Özgürlükçü Demokrasi editor
100            Mehmet Baransu, Taraf columnist/reporter
101            Mehmet Dursun
102            Mehmet Emin Sümeli, Gün Matbaacılık employee
103            Mehmet Güleş, DİHA
104            Mehmet Gündem
105            Mehmet Kuru, Zaman Eskişehir reporter
106            Mehmet Sıddık damar, DİHA
107            Meltem Oktay, DİHA reporter
108            Metin Arslan, Bugün reporter
109            Mikail Barut, Özgür Halk former editor
110            Miktat Algül, Mezitli FM broadcast coordinator
111            Mizgin Çay, Radyo Karacadağ
112            Muhammed Sait Kuloğlu, owner of Subuhaber.com
113            Muhsin Pilgir, Zaman and Cihan news agency
114            Murat Çapan, Nokta
115            Murat Dağdeviren, Demokrat Gebze owner
116            Musa Kaya, Gün Matbaacılık employee
117            Mustafa Erkan Acar, Bugün news editor
118            Mustafa Gök, Ankara bureau chief for Ekmek ve Adalet magazine
119            Mustafa Gökkılıç, reporter, Radikal and Habertürk TV
120            Mustafa Göktaş, Özgür Gündem Şanlıurfa reporter
121            Mustafa Ünal, Zaman
122            Mutlu Çölgeçen, Millet, newsroom coordinator
123            Mutlu Özay, Cihan reporter
124            Mümtazer Türköne, Zaman columnist
125            Mürsel Demir, Gün Matbaacılık employee
126            Nadir Yücel, Çorum Yıldız local newspaper editor-in-chief
127            Nedim Türfent, DİHA
128            Nizamettin İzgi, Batman newspaper owner
129            Nuh Gönültaş, Bugün columnist
130            Nuri Durna, TRT
131            Nuri Yeşil, Azadiya Welat Dersim bureau chief
132            Nurullah Kaya, Gaziantep Zaman representative
133            Oğuz Usluer, Habertürk former broadcasts coordinator
134            Osman Yakut, Zaman Antalya
135            Ömer Oruç, Cihan newspaper
136            Özcan Keser, TRT reporter
137            Özden Kınık, TRT
138            Pınar Gayıp, ETHA reporter
139            Polat Arslan, Gün Matbaacılık employee
140            Reyhan Çapan, Özgür Gündem managing editor
141            Reyhan Hacıoğlu, Özgürlükçü Demokrasi editor
142            Sadık Demir, Radyo Karacadağ
143            Sait Gürkan Tuzlu, Cihan reporter
144            Sami Tunca, Mücadele Birliği magazine managing editor
145            Seda Taşkın, Mezopotamya News Agency reporter
146            Semiha Mete, Özgürlükçü Demokrasi reporter/distributor
147            Semiha Şahin, ETHA editor
148            Serhat Şeftali, Zaman regional bureau chief for the Med region
149            Serkan Aydemir, Bitlis Aktüel reporter
150            Serkan Canbaz, TRT Ankara reporter, news editor
151            Serpil Ünal, Mücadele Birliği reporter
152            Sertan Önal, Halkın Günlüğü reporter
153            Seyid Kılıç, TRT News
154            Seyithan Akyüz, Azadiya Welat Adana bureau chief
155            Sezai Yavaş, TRT Diyarbakır deputy regional director
156            Songül Yücel, Önsöz editor in chief
157            Süleyman Acar, Mücadele Birliği editor in chief
158            Şahabettin Demir, DİHA reporter
159            Şeref Yılmaz, Irmak TV
160            Şirin Kabakçı, Zaman Konya bureau chief
161            Togay Okay, Özgür Gelecek
162            Turgut Usul, TRT reporter
163            Ufuk Şanlı, former Vatan columnist
164            Uğur Akgül
165            Uğur Selman Kelekçiler, Gün Matbaacılık employee
166            Ünal Tanık, Rota Haber editor-in-chief
167            Vahit Yazgan, İzmir Zaman bureau chief
168            Veli Büyükşahin, TV10 executive
169            Veli Haydar Güleç, TV10 executive
170            Yakup Çetin, Zaman reporter
171            Yakup Şimşek, Zaman, marketing director
172            Yalçın Güler, TRT (Erzurum)
173            Yetkin Yıldız, Aktif Haber website editor
174            Yılmaz Kahraman, Özgür Halk editor
175            Zehra Doğan, Jinha
176            Ziya Ataman, DİHA reporter