Republican People’s Party (CHP) Istanbul deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu applied to Ankara 9th High Criminal Court for the removal of the media ban imposed on the coverage of the raid and hostages in Turkey’s General Consulate in Mosul, saying that the ban arbitrarily limited basic human rights and freedoms with no judicial basis.
Some of the highlights from the complaint statement were as follows:
“They are attempting to legitimize censorship"
“They are attempting to legitimize censorship practices by pointing out reasons like protection of society, national security etc. However,the notion of protection the society by banning the flow of information is against freedoms and can cause antidemocratic consequences.
“The fact that the constitution and related laws give judges the competence to issue a media ban doesn’t mean that they can impose it arbitrarily.
“There, judges must impose these bans less rigidly if they have to issue such general media ban with certain measures. if they can’t imply softer measures, they must be able to explain its reasons. Unfortunately, there are no explanations in this case, just like other recent bans.” (EA/BM)
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
