New weapon against independent press?

Reporters Without Borders condemns the Turkish judicial system’s continuing harassment of local and national newspapers. Six journalists have just been or are probably about to be sentenced to pay disproportionate amounts in damages as a result of libel actions. The size of these damages awards shows that the intent is to silence outspoken media. The most disturbing case if that of Mustafa Koyuncu, a journalist with Emirdag, a newspaper in the southwestern town of Emirdag, who is facing a six-year jail sentence on a libel charge under article 125 of the criminal code for an article published on 12 March 2007 about harassment, mistreatment and sexual attacks on persons in police custody. When the case is tried on 29 August, Koyuncu will also face the possibility of being ordered to pay a total of 44,000 lira (22,000 euros) in damages, as 44 police officers claim to have been the target of the article and each of them is demanding 1,000 lira. Reporters Without Borders calls on the court to dismiss the charges and points out that a damages award of this size would force a small newspaper like Emirdag to close. Founded in 1975, it has a print run of 500 copies and would take 11 years and eight months to pay off such a large amount. On 6 May, an Ankara court ordered the daily Vakit (Time) to pay 624,000 lira (312,000 euros) to 312 army generals who brought a libel action over a column published on 25 August 2003. The newspaper has filed an appeal, claiming that only two generals were targeted by the article, not 312. The columnist and poet Ataol Behramoglu is facing the possibility of being sentenced by an Ankara court to pay 20,000 lira (10,000 euros) in damages to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for criticising the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) during a programme on the 24-hour news channel CCN Türk on 2 January. On 9 June, the court rejected a request by Behramoglu’s lawyer for the charges to be dropped on the grounds that his comments, made during a debate on the question “Are we going towards democracy or dictatorship?”, were admissible under the right to free expression. Finally, Reporters Without Borders deplores the fact that an Ankara court has convicted journalist Nazli Ilicak of the daily Sabah (Morning) for a second time over the same article. On 31 March, she was given a suspended sentence of 11 months and 20 days in prison under article 125 of the criminal code for allegedly defaming judge Osman Kaçmaz in a 25 May 2009 article headlined “The president’s immunity.” This time she has been ordered to pay 5,000 lira (2,500 euros) in damages. The newspaper’s owner, Ahmet Calik, was also convicted.