bianet reporter Ruken Tuncel gives statement after complaint by academic

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Bianet reporter has given a statement to the police after a complaint by Prof. Ülkü Özbey, a faculty member at Munzur University in Dersim, southeast Turkey.

The reason for the complaint was a Twitter post by Tuncel including a video of Özbey with a message mentioning the accounts of the university and the rector, Ubeyde İpek: "Is the Ülkü Özbey in this video your dean whom you assigned to 10 departments?"

Filing a criminal complaint with the Tunceli Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, Özbey claimed that Tuncel had violated her right to privacy.

Summoned to depose, Tuncel and her attorney, Sibel Erol, went to the Beylikdüzü Security Directorate in İstanbul today (May 20).

Reports and social media posts

Some of Tuncel's reports that were unrelated to Özbey's complaint were also shown to Tuncel as "elements of crime." Her social media posts about Kurdish politicians Selahattin Demirtaş, Aysel Tuğluk and Ahmet Türk, as well as the Dersim Massacre, were also in the file.

Tuncel said she did not want to give a statement about the social media posts and news reports and said the following about the complaint against her:

"I do not know Ülkü Özbey, a faculty member at Munzur University, personally. I have written many reports about the university and they filed a complaint against me. However, a decision of non-prosecution came out of previous investigations.

"I shared a video that Özbey uploaded to Whatsapp, thinking that it was already being circulated. Pointing to my previous reports, I asked, 'Is this Ülkü Özbey?' I have no animosity towards her. I didn't share a post containing insults.

"If she perceives this as an insult, she should not have shared the video on Whatsapp. I do not accept the accusations." (HA)