But if you think that this inspiration is restricted only to the title of the novel, you are wrong. In this everlasting work of art by Lee, which was adapted to the silver screen by Robert Mulligan in 1962 in an Oscar-winning film featuring Gregory Peck, the black hero of the novel, who was treated as a suspect because of the color of his skin and who therefore suffered a horrible injustice, had the same fate as our hero(es) in the face of biased justice, and this is certainly another source of inspiration for my choosing this title. Of course, killing someone is not always done by destroying his/her mortal body or by executing him/her cruelly after an unfair trial. Sadly, the death of some people, for instance, of a journalist, may come from different methods. Really, to prevent a journalist from writing on certain topics or from writing altogether, is this anything but killing that journalist? Isn't it more scandalous or more dramatic if this decision to kill is issued by a biased court?
What happened to Şamil Tayyar, a fellow journalist, is like this. Tayyar, a columnist for the Star daily who has stood out with his proficiency and interest in the developments surrounding the Ergenekon investigation since the beginning, is about to be silenced with respect to Ergenekon through a process that gives the impression that it is being implemented by Ergenekon. Recently, Tayyar was convicted by a court on charges of “breaching the secrecy of communication and private life” by publishing the transcript of a phone call between Güler Kömürcü, a defendant in the Ergenekon trial, and Tuğrul Türkeş.
He was sentenced to one year and three months in prison. Although his sentence was reprieved, the court ruled that “he be subject to judicial control for a period of five years.” Thus, if Tayyar writes a similar article during this period, he will be jailed. Moreover, since the court decided to issue its “reasoned decision” at an undefined date, Tayyar is effectively prevented from taking the decision to judicial review. Now, tell me: isn't this penalty like destroying the body of a journalist? Banned from writing, how can a journalist live?
The court punished Tayyar for writing an article about a document that is included in one of the indictments in the Ergenekon case and that is publicly accessible. With this strange decision, Tayyar became the first journalist to be punished for writing an article based on legally accessible and available documents. Moreover, this punishment does not concern only Tayyar. This punishment has the potential to act as a precedent, and therefore, it poses a threat to all journalists who are going to write news stories about the Ergenekon trial. Who can expect Tayyar to continue to pen bold articles about the Ergenekon investigation as long as this decision continues to act like the sword of Damocles hanging overhead? Already, talking to the Zaman daily, he underlined this fact. “Unfortunately, this uneasiness will be directly reflected in my writing,” he says.
What's more, this unfair decision has the potential, as Tayyar noted, to intimidate the prosecutors conducting the Ergenekon investigation, the court delegation that accepted the indictments prepared by the prosecutors and the journalists who will write news stories about these documents. Noting that there have been 30 cases calling for punishment or compensation launched against him in connection with the Ergenekon investigation, Tayyar emphasizes that it is virtually impossible for him not to be sent to prison “for committing the same offense.”
While he was a first in this regard, he is obviously not the only victim of Ergenekon's extensions within the judiciary. Responding to a parliamentary question, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin had disclosed in May that 2,407 investigations had been launched against journalists in connection with news stories about the Ergenekon investigation. We can say that this figure has increased considerably today.
Those who pen articles or news stories about the Ergenekon terrorist organization do not face pressure only from the courts that are under the influence of Ergenekon. The columnists and reporters who show interest in these issues are continually threatened. In an interview, Tayyar told Mehmet Gündem of Yeni Şafak: “I always receive death threats. ‘There will be a military takeover, and then, you will be held responsible for what you do today, and you will be jailed,' they say. Some even offered to pay me. They try to silence the journalists who write about Ergenekon in some way or another.”
We were thinking that it would not be easy to combat Ergenekon supporters nested within the army, the bureaucracy, business circles, the media and the judiciary. But we did not think that the judiciary, which is supposed to be impartial, would so openly choose to afford protection to Ergenekon members and supporters. The sentence issued in Tayyar's case is a punishment imposed on the free press that tries to bring Ergenekon into the daylight. Yet, it should not be forgotten that as individual members of the free media, we are all Tayyar. If this illegal decision by the court is an insignia of honor for a journalist, we all share the same honor. If this decision is a conviction that will destroy the already maimed freedom of press in this country, we are all convicts like and together with Tayyar.
As Atticus, a character in “To Kill a Mockingbird” said, we should perhaps address the members of the judiciary seeking to intimidate the journalists that wrestle with the Ergenekon network: "I'd rather you wander in the back yard of Ergenekon, but I know you'll go after innocent journalists. Try all the Ergenekon defendants you want, if you can punish 'em, but remember it's a sin to punish an innocent journalist. Innocent journalists don't do one thing but make articles and news for us to read. They don't murder people, don't devise plots, they don't do one thing but write their hearts out for us." (*)
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(*) To quote the original: “Atticus said to Jem, ‘I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.' … ‘Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us,' [said Miss Maudie].”
