Inspectors Should Know Their Place

Press Council deputy chair Dogan Heper has protested an attempt by Turkey's National Police Directorate inspectors to question Milliyet reporter Tolga Sardan for information related to a news report he filed.

Heper invited the inspectors "to know their place and to conduct their investigations without breaching the limits of duty". He said the attempt to question Sardan by inviting him to be present before the inspectors was a violation of the confidentiality of news source and argued that any relevant information that needed to be publicly known was already in Sardan's April 4, 2004 news report.

Sardan received an invitation from Chief Inspector Ismail Yildiz to visit the Police Directorate after the report was published in the daily Milliyet.

Heper said Yildiz or the police general directorate that would have tasked him to question Sardan, were "using an authority that does not exist under the laws" adding that the invitation was an attempt against the principle of journalists not revealing their sources. (EO/KO/II/YE)