The case against Yılkın and Büyüksipahi was filed upon a complaint by former Gaziantep Governor Davut Gül over a news story published on Cumhuriyet's online edition on 5 March 2022

CANSU PİŞKİN, İSTANBUL

The fourth hearing in the trial of Cumhuriyet newspaper reporter Nagihan Yılkın and cumhuriyet.com.tr former Editor-in-Chief Mustafa Büyüksipahi on the charge of “insulting a public official” was held at the İstanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance on 15 February 2024.

The case against Yılkın and Büyüksipahi was launched upon a complaint by former Gaziantep Governor Davut Gül over a news story headlined “Gaziantep Valiliği Hakkında suç duyurusu: Yolsuzluk ve rüşvet ağı ortaya çıktı” (Criminal complaint against the Governor’s Office of Gaziantep: Corruption and bribery network exposed), published on the newspaper's online edition on 5 March 2022.

P24 monitored the hearing, attended by lawyers for the parties. Yılkın and Büyüksipahi did not attend the hearing.

The prosecutor repeated their final opinion, presented at the hearing on 13 July 2023, and requested sentencing for Yılkın and Büyüksipahi. Co-plaintiff Gül’s lawyer said they upheld their complaint and requested sentencing for Yılkın and Büyüksipahi in line with the opinion.

The journalists’ lawyer Özge Naz Akkaya said that the news story was in keeping with the apparent truth. Akkaya said: “The subject of the news story is Davut Gül, who was then serving in public office as the Governor of Gaziantep. The content of the news report does not concern the personal and private life of Gül, but a public works tender that had a negative outcome. Therefore, the reporting is of public benefit. No insulting expressions were used in the news story. Yılkın’s acts are lawful under the freedom of reporting, and we demand her acquittal.”

Akkaya stated that due to the amendment to the Law on the Press, news editors no longer had penal liability and requested the acquittal of Büyüksipahi, who was the managing editor at the time the news item was published.

The court ordered Yılkın to pay a judicial fine of TL 7,080 on the charge of “insulting a public official” and acquitted Büyüksipahi as the act was not defined as a crime in the law.