TV Presenter-Writer Uca Sentenced to Prison for Criticizing State-Run Anadolu Agency

* Photo: Twitter

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Television presenter - writer Metin Uca has been sentenced to 1 year, 2 months, 17 days in prison over a tweet where he pointed out that the results announced by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) four days before the Presidential and Parliamentary elections on June 24, 2018 and the actual election results overlapped with each other.

The İstanbul 52nd Penal Court of First Instance has concluded that Uca committed the crime of "insulting a commissioned officer due to their duty."

In the lawsuit filed by AA Director General Şenol Kazancı and Vice Director General Mustafa Özkaya, the court has argued that Metin Uca's tweet "exceeded the boundaries of freedom of expression." Accordingly, the court has increased the prison sentence as the Twitter post in question was "shared publicly" and "targeted more than one person."

'My intention was to express my reaction'

In his statement of defense, Metin Uca has rejected the accusations and briefly stated the following:

"Before the June 24 elections, election results that would overlap with elections results were broadcast coincidentally. At that time, it was said that it was for preparation. But, seeing that the percentages aired on TVs were the same with the ones at the election night, I posted the first tweet.

"My intention there was to express my reaction against a perception operation and to prevent the polling clerks from leaving the ballot boxes."

'The biggest vote theft in history'

Metin Uca has also made a statement about the verdict of the court on his social media account. "The AA Director General, who tried to create the virtual infrastructure for the biggest vote theft in history, tries to direct the judiciary as well," Uca has said and added:

"While the AA Director General, who made efforts over efforts to be the architect of the biggest electoral rigging scandal by stopping the broadcast for hours, hides behind his identity as a civil servant, I receive a prison sentence. The wall of fear had long been got over. The efforts to intimidate people through me are being funny, it undermines the respect for the law."

What happened?

The state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) sends the graphics to be used at the election night to its subscribers beforehand. Based on these graphics, television channels make their own technical preparations.

Four days before the general elections on June 24, 2018, while a program named "Akıl Odası" (Room of Mind) was broadcast on Tvnet, the "election screen" of the AA was also shown for a short time.

According to this election screen, Presidential candidates Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would receive 53 percent of the votes while main opposition CHP's Muharrem İnce would receive 26 percent, İYİ Party's Meral Akşener 26 percent, HDP's Selahattin Demirtaş 7 percent, SP's Temel Karamollaoğlu 1 percent and Patriotic Party's Doğu Perinçek 1 percent. (HA/SD)