Changes to Press Law Acquit Journalist Kara

A Datca court acquitted Kara as a result of the amendments to the Press Law. He, the former owner of daiy Datca News , was standing trial for not delivering the local official two copies of the dailies. He had been jailed for the same reason before.

Erol Önderoğlu

Journalist Sinan Kara, who was jailed when he was the owner of the now-closed "Datca News" newspaper, for not "delivering the local official two copies of the newspaper," was acquitted the second time he stood trial for the same reason. His acquittal was a result of the amendments to the Press Law.

The ruling of a Datca court on September 7 was delivered to Kara on October 7.

The Datca court made a ruling on the case overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeals on July 1, 2004 on grounds of the amendments to the Press Law. The court acquitted Kara on grounds of the amendments to the Press Law, approved on June 26, 2004.

The court ruled that the current Press Law makes it a requirement to deliver newspapers to the state prosecutors, and not the local officials. It added that this regulation made the crime void.

Kara had been sued for "not delivering to the senior local official" the 14 copies of newspaper published between January 18 and December 26, 2000. (EO/BB/EA/YE)

Origin

BÄ°A News Center

Erol Önderoğlu

[email protected]

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A graduate of the French Language and Literature Department at İstanbul University. He has served as the Turkey representative for the international organization Reporters Without...

A graduate of the French Language and Literature Department at İstanbul University. He has served as the Turkey representative for the international organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where he began as a reporter in 1996. Since 1999, he has worked at bianet, a project of the IPS Communication Foundation, as the coordinator of the Legal Support Desk, editor for freedom of expression, and editor-in-chief. He has authored more than 4,800 signed news articles and opinion pieces. He has also written for Bizim Gazete and the journal Güncel Hukuk. He currently prepares the Media Monitoring Reports at bianet.