Reyhan Çapan sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison; newspaper, reporter ordered to pay compensation; journalists Seyhan Avşar, Hale Gönültaş say they receive threats

 

Compensation trial against Sedat Yılmaz postponed

 

The first hearing in the trial of journalist Sedat Yılmaz and Yeni Yaşam newspaper for “defamation” was held on 16 May 2022 at the Bakırköy 14th Civil Court of First Instance. Yılmaz and Yeni Yaşam are sued by Selçuk Bayraktar, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law and the chief technology officer of drone company Baykar, over a report on the sale of Baykar-made drones to foreign countries.

 

Yılmaz and his lawyer did not attend the hearing. A lawyer of Bayraktar was in attendance in the court session. Ordering an investigation into the economic and social situation of Yılmaz, the court adjourned the trial until 27 June 2022.

 

The lawsuit stems from a news report, published on the website of Yeni Yaşam on 22 November 2021 under the title “Bayraktar SİHA’lar hangi ülkeye nasıl satılıyor” (“How and to which countries are Bayraktar UCAVs sold”) and in the print issue of the newspaper on 23 November 2021 under the title “Erdoğan ailesi ve devlet Bayraktar’ın satış mümessili gibi: Aile boyu savaş ticareti” (“Erdoğan family and the state are like Bayraktar’s sale representatives: Family size war trade”). He seeks TL 150,000 in non-pecuniary damage.

 

 

ETHA’s Twitter account blocked

 

Etkin News Agency (ETHA)’s Twitter account, @etkinhaberetha, has been blocked by a court decision. The account, which had 82K followers, was blocked without any notification.

 

The news agency’s website, etha39.com, was also blocked by a decision of the Diyarbakır 4th Criminal Court of First Instance, dated on 11 May 2022, on the ground of "protection of national security and public order." This was the 12th time access to ETHA's website was blocked this year alone. The agency's website is currently accessible at etha40.com address.

 

Saturday Mother addressing Soylu detained

 

Police on 17 May blockaded a gathering of Saturday Mothers/People in front of the İstanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan and detained Hanife Yıldız, a member of the group, reportedly for her derogatory remarks targeting Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

 

The Saturday Mothers is a group that has been regularly gathering in downtown İstanbul since 1995 to seek justice for their relatives, who were forcibly disappeared in the 1980s and the 90s.  Yıldız, the mother of Murat Yıldız who was forcibly disappeared in custody 27 years ago, was detained after her remarks during a press statement. “We are in the 27th year of enforced disappearances. Our place in front of Galatasaray Highschool is forbidden to us. We came to the Courthouse as if there was justice. There is justice but in the hands of the unjust. Should I call out to the governor or the Fancy Sülo? Fancy Sülo, one day you will also be subject to these bans,” Yıldız said, in reference to the interior minister.

 

Following Yıldız’s speech, the police called on the group to disperse. Yıldız was detained after she left the courthouse and taken to Çağlayan Police Station. She was reportedly charged with “insulting a public official” and was released later in the same day after giving her statement.

 

 

ETHA reporter Ali Sönmez Kayar’s trial adjourned until October

 

The 14th hearing of the trial of Etkin News Agency (ETHA) reporter Ali Sönmez Kayar and eight other defendants on the charge of “membership in a terrorist organization” was held on 17 May 2022 at the İstanbul 32nd High Criminal Court.

 

Some of the defendants and their lawyers were present at the hearing. Lawyer Gülhan Kaya, who represent Kayar and co-defendant Sıtkı Güngör, said their case file should be merged with an ongoing trial overseen by the İstanbul 11th High Criminal Court. In its interim decision issued at the end of the hearing, the court ruled to ask the 11th High Criminal Court that the two cases be merged and adjourned the trial until 11 October 2022.

 

Prosecutor seeks conviction of Nurcan Yalçın at first hearing of “terrorism” trial

 

The first hearing in the trial of journalist Nurcan Yalçın on the charge of “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member” on the basis of the interviews she conducted during military operations in Diyarbakir's Sur district between 2015-2016 was held on 17 May 2022.

 

Yalçın and her lawyer Resul Temur were present the hearing, held at the Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court. In her defense statement to the court, Yalçın denied the accusation, saying that she went to Sur and met with people she interviewed there as part of journalistic activities. Yalçın’s lawyer also said that his client went to Sur to report as a journalist and requested her acquittal.

 

Submitting their final opinion of the case, the prosecutor asked for the conviction of Yalçın of “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member.” The prosecutor argued in the final opinion that Yalçın “gave psychological support to the terrorist organization to raise moral motivation” with her interviews. Temur and Yalçın requested additional time to prepare their defense statements in response to the prosecutor’s final opinion. Granting additional time for the defense, the court adjourned the trial until 5 July 2022.

 

Yalçın was detained in a police raid at her home on 4 February 2022 as part of an investigation carried out by Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor’s Office. An indictment was later filed against Yalçın, who was released on 7 February, on the charge of “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member.”

 

Journalist İsmail Arı and BirGün newspaper ordered to pay compensation

 

The second hearing of a compensation trial filed against reporter İsmail Arı and BirGün newspaper by Selçuk Bayraktar, son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his brother Haluk Bayraktar, was held on 17 May 2022 at the İstanbul 23th Civil Court of First Instance. Announcing its verdict at the end of the hearing, the court ordered BirGün and Arı to pay TL 100,000 (5,960 euros) to plaintiff Selçuk Bayraktar and another 100,000 TL to Haluk Bayraktar, in non-pecuniary damages.

 

BirGün and Arı were sued by Selçuk and Haluk Bayraktar for a news report published on 21 August 2021 and titled “TÜBİTAK damadın vakfına çalışıyor” (TÜBİTAK is working for the son-in-law’s foundation). Bayraktar brothers demanded TL 250,000 in non-pecuniary damages, claiming the news report was an “attack on their personal rights.”

 

At the hearing on 17 May, the lawyer for Bayraktar brothers asked for the acceptance of the case, claiming that the defendants made false statements about Selçuk and Haluk Bayraktar. The lawyer for Arı and BirGün newspaper, however, reminded that a separate compensation lawsuit filed by TÜBİTAK on the basis of the same news report had been dismissed by the Ankara 18th Civil Court of First Instance. He denied that the news in question constituted an attack on personal rights and asked for the dismissal of the case.

 

 

Two students detained at school for “insulting the president”

 

Two high school students named E.G. (16) and B.D. (17) were detained by police at their school on 17 May 2022 for “insulting the president.”

 

The students, who were reportedly detained for shouting slogans against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during Feminist Night Walk on 8 March 2022, were taken to Üsküdar Children’s Police Department. They were then taken to the İstanbul Courthouse and released after giving their statement to a prosecutor from the Juvenile Crimes Investigation Bureau of the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

 

Lawyers for the two children told the prosecutor that their arrest at the school was unacceptable, to which the prosecutor reportedly saying that he had not ordered it.

 

Journalist Reyhan Çapan sentenced to 1 year 6 months in prison

 

Journalist Reyhan Çapan, the former responsible managing editor for the now-defunct Özgür Gündem newspaper, was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in jail for “printing or publishing statements of terrorist organizations.”

 

The İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court, which oversaw the retrial, announced its verdict at the end of the second hearing, held on 18 May 2022.

 

Özcan Kılıç, the lawyer of Çapan, attended the hearing but Çapan was not present. Repeating their opinion in the previous hearing, the prosecutor asked for the conviction of Çapan on the charge of “printing or publishing statements of terrorist organizations.” Lawyer Kılıç demanded the acquittal of Çapan.

 

Çapan was on trial on the charge of “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization” along with lawyer and human rights defender Eren Keskin, the former co-editor-in-chief of Özgür Gündem, on the basis of a news report published in the newspaper on 12 July 2015. At the end of the trial, the İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court ruled to sentence Çapan to 1 year and 6 months and Keskin to 1 year 3 months of imprisonment. The announcement of the verdict for Keskin was deferred. Çapan’s lawyers then appealed the case at the Supreme Court of Appeals. The 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the verdict on 27 December 2021, saying Çapan should have been charged with “printing or publishing statements of terrorist organizations” and ordering a retrial.

 

 

BİK probes more than 100 newspapers and websites upon university’s complaint

 

The Press Advertising Agency (BİK) has asked more than 100 newspaper and websites, which covered a parliamentary question submitted by an opposition deputy on a state university allegedly reserving quotas for foreign students, to submit defense statements under press ethics code.

 

The BİK move came after the Dokuz Eylül University administration filed a complaint with the agency against the newspapers and websites for “acting against the press ethics code” after they reported on the parliamentary question submitted by Özcan Purçu, a deputy for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). The complaint is signed by the university’s Rector Nükhet Hotar, a former deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Purçu’s parliamentary question included allegations that the Dokuz Eylül University reserved 10,165 of its 21,260-student quota for foreign students, creating inequality in admission opportunities, and asked the Education Ministry and Vice President Fuat Oktay to submit an explanation in response to the allegations.

 

The university did not request the media outlets concerned to publish any correction. In response to the university’s administration’s complaint, BİK urged the media outlets to submit their defense statements in 15 days.

 

Council of State annuls suspension on the stay of execution for Press Card Regulation

 

The Council of State has upheld objections filed by the Presidency to its earlier decision to suspend the execution of controversial amendments to the Press Card Regulation, which went into effect on 21 May 2021.

 

The objection, filed by the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications, was accepted by the 10th Chamber of the Council of State. The amendments in question had been taken to the Council of State by journalists’ groups, which said they allowed the Presidency to arbitrarily chose who can receive a press card and cancel existing ones. The Council of State’s Board of Administrative Law Chambers said in its decision dated 14 February 2022 that the press card ownership was “not directly linked to the exercise of press freedom.” The press card is defined as the identity card given by Presidency’s Directorate of Communications for the persons specified in the Regulation, said the decision, adding that media workers can use the press card as a proof to follow the public events. “There is no provision in the existing legislation that implies that absence of a press card prevents the media workers from performing their professional duties,” it said.

 

 

Seyhan Avşar and Hale Gönültaş say they receive threats

 

Journalists Seyhan Avşar and Hale Gönültaş announced on 20 May 2022 that they were receiving threats on social media because of their reporting. Avşar, a reporter for Halk TV, said she received threats after reporting on the testimony of a man who was arrested on drug smuggling charges and who reportedly said he was an operative for the intelligence agency.  Kisadalga.net contributor Hale Gönültaş said the threats were linked to her coverage of a radical Islamist group in İstanbul.

 

 

Engin Eren’s trial adjourned until May

 

The 29th hearing in the trial of 66 people, including former reporter of the now-defunct DİHA news agency Engin Eren, was held on 20 April 2022 at the Batman 2nd High Criminal Court. The defendants are charged with “membership in a terrorist organization,” “violation of the Law no. 2565 on the Military Forbidden Zones and Security Zones,” and “violation of the Law no. 2911 on Public Assemblies and Demonstrations.”

 

The court ruled to send the case file to the prosecutor one more time for their final opinion. The trial adjourned until 3 June. 

 

52 journalists and media workers in prison

 

As of 23 May 2022, at least 52 journalists and media workers are in prison in Turkey, either in pre-trial detention or serving a sentence.

 

The full list can be accessed here.