30 Mar 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Hürriyet newspaper journalist Nurettin Kurt and editorial manager Hasan Kılıç face between one and three years imprisonment for publishing photographs of Colonel E.Y.B. The photographs were taken during the ongoing investigation into the alleged plot to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç. Kurt and Kılıç have been charged under Anti-Terror Laws for “identifying officials on anti-terrorist duties as targets of terror organizations”. The court has not yet stated which terror organisations Kurt and Kılıç supposedly identified as targeting the Colonel.
23 Mar 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Haldun Açıksözlü, actor and director of the theatre play Laz Marks, faces two years in jail over allegations that he insulted the prime minister in his play. The show has run for a year and has been shown in over 80 provinces.
The charges came only a week after British artist, Michael Dickenson, was fined for superimposing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s head onto the body of a dog.
17 Mar 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Editor-in-chief of the Firat newspaper Hacı Boğatekin has been sentenced to five years in jail. Bogatekin was charged with “insult” and “defamation” and “attempting to influence a fair trial”. Three other journalists were charged with similar offences. In one of the offending articles Bogatekin argued that the real threat did not come from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party but from religious leader Fethullah Gülen’s congregation. He also published prosecutor Sadullah Ovacıklı’s criticism of his abbreviation of Gülen’s name to “Feto” and made allegations about the prosecutors relationship with Güle. Boğatekin was awarded the Press Freedom Award in 2008 and was awarded by the Contemporary Journalists’ Association (ÇGD) in 2009.
15 Mar 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Baris Yarkadas, editor of online newspaper Gercek Gündem, faces five years in jail for failing to remove a comment posted on his website insulting President Gül. The comment, written by an anonymous reader, accused President Gül of allowing his Armenian counter-part to defy him, and of bringing shame upon Turkey. Yarkadas is also charged with insulting the head of the Turkey’s Institute for Forensic Medicine by reporting
allegations brought about by human rights NGOs.
