Investigation into bianet report about ‘lawsuit against journalists’

Özcan and Eyüpoğlu

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An investigation has been launched against bianet's article titled "Lawsuit against journalists covering allegations of bribery about Erdoğan's lawyer."

Nazan Özcan, who was the editor-in-chief of bianet at the time, was summoned to the İstanbul Security Directorate for the article in question. She testified today (May 25) with bianet's attorney Meriç Eyüpoğlu, at the Security Branch of the Directorate.

"All the issues in the news article are reported as 'claims'. Therefore, it does not have the nature of 'insult-libel' as the complainant claims, it is a journalistic activity," stated Özcan, adding she does not accept the accusation against her.

Özcan also wrote on her Twitter account, "Journalistic activities cannot be approached as a crime."

What happened?

The article in question is about a lawsuit against Doğan Ergün, the former Editor-in-Chief of İleri Haber news website, and İzel Sezer, the then Managing Director and the current Editor-in-Chief of İleri Haber who have been facing up to 11 years, 4 months in prison.

The reason for the lawsuit against the two journalists is the news reports regarding the tweets of an opposition MP making allegations of bargaining for bribes about Mustafa Doğan İnal, the former lawyer of the President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Mustafa Doğan İnal, claiming that the allegations in the article do not reflect the truth, filed a criminal complaint against the journalists.
The indictment against the journalists has argued that the journalists committed the repeated offenses of "publicly insulting", "unlawful disclosure of data obtained by recording non-public conversations in the press" and "libel".

After İnal's complaint, an investigation was launched against Ergün and Sezer by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. (AS/TB/VK)