P24 applies to court to have publication ban lifted

Cumhuriyet newspaper along with T24 and RotaHaber news portals will refuse to obey legal restrictions on reporting a parliamentary commission looking into allegations of high-level corruption. The publications made their defiance know after the Speaker of the Grand Turkish National Assembly successfully applied to the courts for a blanket order covering the work of an investigation into the so-called “17 December” scandal.
 
That was the date in 2013 when a series of police recordings and wiretaps were leaked onto the internet, eventually forced the resignation of four senior ministers. At one stage the scandal appeared to threaten the office of then prime minister Tayyip Erdgoğan.
 
The defiance comes as a reaction to the increasing level of reporting restrictions imposed by the courts in cases the government regards as sensitive to its own reputation
 
Punto24 (P24) Platform for Independent Journalism announced it would initiate legal proceedings to have the ban annulled. It has received legal opinion that the reporting restrictions on an inquiry into high level government corruption violates the public right-to-know and is against the public interest.  P24 will present the legal petition to the Ankara 7^th  Lower Criminal Court.

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