A newspaper columnist has been charged with “insulting a public official” after he criticised the Turkish justice system’s management of the investigation into journalist Hrant Dink‘s murder. Daily News columnist Cengiz Cangar described the court as reckless and frivolous, and accused it of “forgetting to bring in the most crucial witness”, in a column entitled Hrant and Justice are being ridiculed. In his testimony to Turkey’s prosecutor of press crimes, Cangar argued that he had not directed his criticisms towards any specific individual, and that the presiding judge in the trial agreed that the courtroom had lacked decorum at points.
