Press Freedom on Trial in Turkey
On June 2nd, a trial will begin in Caglayan Istanbul Second Criminal Court. Baris Ince, the editor-in-chief of the Turkish independent daily newspaper, BirGun, is being sued under Article 229 of the Turkish Criminal Code for “defamation of the President”.
The newspaper printed an acrostic to spell out the phrase “Thief Tayyip,” referring to the then Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It is a slogan chanted on the streets by millions of Turkish protestors. For printing this slogan, the prosecution seeks a five and a half year prison sentence for Baris Ince.
After the 1971 coup d’état in Turkey, veteran journalist, Ilhan Selcuk (1925-2010), used an acrostic to spell out the sentence, “I am under torture”, The penultimate word of each sentence of his article began with the letters to spell out this sentence. İlhan Selçuk inaugurated this tradition of using an acrostic. Baris Ince honored that tradition with the phrase printed in BirGun.
Our Editor-in-Chief demonstrated that there are facts hidden in Turkey by the silence bought through political pressure. His act was a political criticism.
Political criticism should not earn a five and a half year prison sentence for a newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief. BirGun’s work honors the country with its contribution to the media. The prosecutor’s claim is not only unreasonable, but also unjust.
During the campaigns around corruption in Turkey, millions of people chanted the slogan – “Thief Tayyip” – in demonstrations. What BirGundid is not personal defamation. It reported the reaction on the streets to the corruption and bribery charges.
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