16 Jul 2010 | Index Index, minipost
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.
16 Jun 2010 | News and features
Turkey’s Internet censorship hit the news this week when the country’s own president raised his objections to the policy on Twitter. Yaman Akdeniz explains the state’s recent struggles with Google and YouTube
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11 Jun 2010 | Index Index, minipost
A writer for Sabah newspaper writer has been fined TL 5,000 (€ 2500) for describing a judge as “officious.”Nazli Ilicak was found guilty of “attacking personal rights” in the article from 25 May 2009 entitled “The President’s immunity.” Ilicak had been previously sentenced to imprisonment of eleven months and 20 days for insulting the same judge but the sentence was postponed.
10 Jun 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Three members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party were sentenced to six months each for speaking Kurdish in an election campaign. Although the election campaigners claimed to have welcomed the meeting in Kurdish, they were sentenced for”committing a criminal offence by violating the laws related to oral and written election propaganda to be made in Turkish only”. The sentences come only days after journalist Irfan Atkan was jailed for 15 months, and his editor fined for publishing an article quoting a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party.
