BIA Net, Turkey
March 5 2010
Prison Sentence for Posting Reader Comment?
BarıÅ? YarkadaÅ?, publication director of the Gerçek Gündem internet
site, stands trial for a reader comment which allegedly insulted
President Gül. YarkadaÅ? said that the site does not post comments
concerning the president any more. RSF is following the case up.
Erol Ã-NDEROÄ?LU [email protected] Istanbul – BÄ°A News Center05 March
2010, Friday Gerçek Gündem.com (‘Real Agenda’) internet news site
publication director BarıÅ? YarkadaÅ? faces a prison sentence of five
years and four months on the grounds of publishing a reader comment
which allegedly constituted an insult to President Abdullah Gül. The
first hearing of the case was heard at the Kadıköy (Istanbul) 7th
Criminal Court of First Instance on 3 March.
YarkadaÅ? stated in the hearing, "We closed the site to postings of
reader comments regarding Abdullah Gül in order not to face yet
another court case. In a way we implemented auto-censorship".
RSF: Attempt to oppress critics
The international organization of Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
based in France closely observes YarkadaÅ?’s case. RSF said in an
announcement that putting YarkadaÅ? on trial was an "attempt to oppress
critics".
Gerçek Gündem.com had also published comments regarding Turkey uttered
by Armenian President Serj Sarkisyan. YarkadaÅ? previously stood trial
for posting a reader comment sent by a person alias "Türkeli27" saying
that "Sarkisyan challenged Turkey due to the attitude of Gül".
Currently, YarkadaÅ? is charged with "insult of the President"
according to articles 299/1, 2, 3 and 53 of the Turkish Criminal Code
(TCK).
Website banned comments on the president
YarkadaÅ? attended the hearing on Wednesday together with his laywers
Nalan Gonca Ã?elik, Metin Florinalı, Erdal DoÄ?an and Sennur BeyboÄ?a.
The joint attorneys requested the acquittal of their client. Based on
the principle of personal crime they demanded to drop the case.
YarkadaÅ? claimed in the hearing: "We have no intention to insult the
President. In fact, I did not commit the crime I am accused of. I am
prosecuted for a comment that I did not write"
"We removed the comment from the site without any legal obligations to
show that we have no intent of insult. The comment was posted on the
site during a time when we did not apply filters to the thoughts sent
by our readers. Upon receiving the complaint, we installed new
software to audit the comments. Our site is completely closed to the
posting of comments regarding the President now".
Auto-censorship
YarkadaÅ? said that they applied this kind of auto-censorship in order
not to face yet another trial. Also lawyer DoÄ?an described the
application as "auto-censorship".
Judge Tahsin DoÄ?an asked YarkadaÅ? which control mechanisms were
currently implied for the publication of reader comments. YarkadaÅ?
replied, "Defamation and criticism are up to everyone’s personal
perspective. We post comments according to our legal knowledge and our
discernment. It is up to you to decide on this".
YarkadaÅ? pointed out that the Informatics Crime Branch Directorate
confirmed that the comment was written by a reader in Denmark. "We are
tried based on a comment we did not write ourselves. This kind of
cases can be found in different countries all over the world. So if
there is a crime constituted, the referring topic is removed. We did
just the same", YarkadaÅ? said. The trial is to be continued on 9 June.
The hearing was attended by AkÅ?am newspaper writer Mustafa Dolu,
Republican People’s Party (CHP) Press Adivsor Veysi Å?ahin and CHP
Treasurer Ä°lhan Ã?elik among others. (EÃ-/VK)
dom-of-expression/120435-prison-sentence-for-posti ng-reader-comment