Interview With The PKK Militants Costs Fifty Thousand Euro In Fines

Istanbul’s 10th High Criminal Court has fined daily Hurriyet’s reporter Sebati Karakurt and managers Hasan Kılıç and Necdet Tatlıcan fifty thousand euro for the interview conducted with the PKK four years age. The article, which was titled “The awareness of women in Kandil surpasses the Kurdishness” , was construed as “publishing the comments of the terrorist organization” and “doing propaganda work for the PKK”.

After the interview on October 10, 2004, the police had stormed Karakurt’s house, pressured him to turn in the images  he had and later apprehended him. Many media organizations, among them the Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) and the Press Council, had reacted against this treatment.

The argument that the unknown sides of the organization was uncovered was not enough

The interview was about the life of the militants located on the Kandil Mountain in Northern Iraq and their changing values. Nurcan Çalışkan, lawyer of the journalists, emphasized that the interview had brought to light the unknown sides of the PKK organization, the article was a news reports and was therefore protected by the freedom of the press.

According to the interview, the PKK militants were watching TV series, soccer games and talk shows. The interview had also touched upon the relations between the men and  the women miliants. One of the militants was quoted saying “We do not want a state independent of Turkey.”

Kapmaz, Bayar and Gürbüz were punished too

Journalist Cengiz Kapmaz, reporter for the newspaper Ülkede Özgür Gündem, was sentenced to 10 months in prison and fined 375 YTL (about 179 Euro) for his interview with former Democracy Party (DEP) deputy Orhan Doğan. He was charged with “doing propaganda work for the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK)”.

The investigation that eventually led to Kapmaz’s sentence was launched for his words that “A group of politicians led by Zübeyir Aydar should come to Turkey before the elections. The court reduced Kapmaz’s sentence from one year in prison to ten months in prison and fined him 375 YTL. It also fined the administrators of the newspaper at the time, Hasan Bayar and Ali Gürbüz, 2000 YTL (about 1100 euro) and 4000 YTL (about 2200 euro) respectively. (EÖ/EÜ/TB)