Günlük Newspaper Owner and Journalist Face Trial

The court case against Ziya Çiçekçi, license holder of the daily Günlük newspaper which has just received a two-month publishing ban, and writer Veysi Sarısözen began on Wednesday, 10 June.

The Istanbul 12th Heavy Penal Court is trying the two journalists for "spreading PKK propaganda". Citing the Anti-Terrorism Law, Article 7/2, the prosecution is demanding up to 7.5 years imprisonment.

9,270 Euros or a trial

The article which has led to the prosecution was published on 6 February 2009, written by Sarısözen and entitled "Not we but the people are spreading organisational propaganda."

The hearing was attended by Çiçekçi and the newspaper's lawyer Özcan Kılıç. The court, headed by Judge Vedat Yılmaz Abdurrahmanoğlu, announced that the court case would be dropped if the defendants paid the equivalent of 1,000 days legal fines, i.e. 20,000 TL (around 9,270 Euros) within 10 days.

Should this fine not be paid, Çiçekçi's trial will continue. At the next hearing on 26 October, Sarısözen's statement will be taken.

The newspaper has been publishing for six months.

"One million people violating Anti-Terrorism Law"

In the article by Sarısözen, it says, "For instance, we describe the PKK differently from [Prime Minister] Erdoğan...We say that PKK activities should be considered under laws banning armed organisation for rebellion and uprising...Why should we be spreading organisational propaganda? The people are there, doing it anyway...I have never shouted or written 'Bijî PKK'['Long live the PKK' in Kurdish]...But at the Diyarbakır Newroz celebrations, I saw a million people violating the Anti-Terrorism Law and spreading organisational propaganda.

Prosecutor Hüseyin Ayar said in his indictment that the article said that the PKK was not seen as a terrorist organisation by the people or by themselves, but rather as a movement of uprising, of rebellion, that those considered terrorists by the Prime Minister were not considered terrorists by the people, that the article as a whole spread propaganda, and that the editor, who read the article and did not consider it a criminal act had participated in the crime. (EÖ/AG)