FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sued out TL 5,000 (€ 2,500) in compensation to be paid by the nation-wide Cumhuriyet newspaper and one of its writers, Bekir Coşkun. The daily and Coşkun were found guilty of an "attack on the Prime Minister's personal rights".

The initial petition included a TL 10,000 compensation claim and was based on Coşkun's article entitled "Why can't you destroy the republic?" published in the "Cumhuriyet Ankara" supplement from 29 October 2010. The petition put forward that the article "included expressions that violated honour and dignity and insulting and invective statements with the intention to attack Erdoğan's personal rights".

The case was handled by the Ankara 12^th Criminal Court of First Instance. According to Sabah newspaper, Judge Mustafa Çakmak partly accepted the compensation claim and ruled for a monetary fine of TL 5,000 in compensation including interest since the date of publication.

What did Coşkun write?

In his article, Coşkun touched upon the profit of the republican regime and its indestructibility. "He sat on the chair of the Republic, the one who turns up his nose at the Republic with his almond moustache. (...) He would herd cows if there was no Republic, the Republic made him a man. (...)"

On 30 March, Hasip Kaplan, Şırnak Deputy of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), was sentenced on charges of an "attack on personal rights" by the Ankara 7^th Criminal Court of First Instance. Kaplan has to pay a monetary fine of TL 6,000 (€ 3,000) in compensation to the Prime Minister. (NV/EÖ)