Legal actions urge journalist to engage in self-censorship, pundits say

Star daily columnist Şamil Tayyar, who is among the dozens of journalists covering the Ergenekon case, received a 20-month suspended prison sentence last Thursday because of his book on Ergenekon, titled “Operasyon Ergenekon” (Operation Ergenekon). The sentence will be dropped if Tayyar does not commit a crime in the next five years. Some Ergenekon defendants filed a criminal complaint against Tayyar, claiming that he had violated the confidentiality of the Ergenekon investigation and had attempted to affect the court with his book.

Some of the claims put forth in Tayyar’s book could potentially work against the defendants’ case, according to the plaintiffs. In the indictment, the prosecutor demanded that Tayyar receive a sentence of between one-and-a-half and six years.

On the same day Tayyar received his sentence, Mehmet Baransu, a reporter from the Taraf daily who exposed a suspected military plot named “Cage Operation Action Plan,” which aimed to assassinate non-Muslim community leaders, testified to prosecutors at the Kadıköy courthouse on charges of violating the principle of confidentiality of an ongoing judicial process and was transferred to the İstanbul 5th Criminal Court of Peace for arrest. However, the reporter was released by the court.

Tayyar and Baransu are not the only journalists facing charges for covering stories like Ergenekon as Justice Ministry data show that around 3,000 journalists face charges for covering the Ergenekon case.

Disturbed by the cases filed again journalists, press organizations and journalists note that there should be no obstacle before freedom of the press in Turkey, that laws that restrict this freedom should be amended and that resolutions of the European Court of Human Rights should be adopted.

Ahmet Abakay, chairperson of the Contemporary Journalists Association (ÇGD), characterized the trial and conviction of journalists for merely performing their profession as “a very primitive and outdated situation.” He warned that the trial of journalists gives an implicit message to all journalists to be careful about what they are writing and to engage in self-censorship out of fear of arrest.

“The job of journalists is to uncover news that the public should know and inform people about it. This is what our colleagues are doing. All these punishments and bans now show that Turkey’s democratization efforts have failed,” said Abakay.

“We should be thanking him”

Derya Sazak, a columnist from Milliyet, said it was necessary to thank Baransu for uncovering the cage plan, not to punish him because no one can imagine what would happen in Turkey if the chaotic plans of the cage plan had been put into practice.

The Cage Operation Action Plan, which was first exposed by Baransu last month, sought to intimidate Turkey’s non-Muslims and assassinate prominent non-Muslim figures to put domestic and international pressure on the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which would in turn lead to diminishing public support for the party.

Shortly after the revelation, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) announced that a criminal complaint had been filed against Taraf due to its report on the Cage plan. “A criminal complaint was filed at the Ministry of Justice against the press organ in question,” Maj. Gen. Ferit Güler said during a weekly press briefing on Nov. 20.

In early December, Baransu was given the Sedat Simavi Award by the Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) for his groundbreaking reporting.

“Such legal action against journalists cannot be defended if we take into account freedom of expression. These acts aim to discourage journalists from covering similar news in the future,” added Sazak.

Sabah daily columnist Nazlı Ilıcak is a journalists facing legal trouble for criticizing Sincan 1st High Criminal Court Chief Justice Osman Kaçmaz in her column for opening the way for President Abdullah Gül to be tried in a court of law.

“It is possible that the Sincan judge was acting ideologically or that in his true conscience he believed that Gül did not have immunity. But, in any case, looking at all the debates swirling around this topic now, I can firmly declare that this seems to have been the ‘only thing missing from our agenda’ and can also point out what we can refer to as Kaçmaz’s personal act of ‘meddling officiousness’,” she wrote in her May 25 column.

Kaçmaz lodged a case against Ilıcak for insulting him. The journalist now faces a prison sentence of up to 26 months.

Denying the charges, Ilıcak said she did not mean to insult Kaçmaz but only sought to criticize his ruling.

A victim of similar cases in the past, human rights activist and publisher Ragıp Zarakolu described the trial of journalists for merely doing their job “worrisome,” as he explained: “The important thing is people’s right to have access to information, not to render the state and state officials untouchable. Some articles in the Turkish Penal Code [TCK] which are used to try journalists are used to keep the state and the judiciary free of criticism. There are restrictions on the people’s right to have information and freedom of the press. Every year we shamelessly celebrate the removal of censorship, but laws unfortunately continue to impose censorship of the press.”

These attempts to carry out legal action against journalists covering the Ergenekon case are usually based on TCK Article 285, which criminalizes the “violation of confidentiality,” and Article 288, which criminalizes “influencing the independent judiciary.” Hundreds of such cases have been filed by prosecutors against various press organizations as well.

According to Ertuğrul Kürkçü, editor-in-chief of Bianet, journalists should be able to perform their jobs without being afraid of anyone and without getting permission from any authority. He said except for cases of insulting individuals and hatred and inciting war, journalists should not face legal action over their work.

“What is meant by state secret? No one tells us about the criteria that make something a state secret. If a newsworthy item has been obtained by a journalist, it no longer becomes a secret. The EU has been asking Turkey for the past 20 years to remove obstacles before freedom of expression, but governments fail to take action to achieve this,” Kürkçü complained.