Erdoğan files a criminal complaint against 2 CHP MPs for 'insulting the President’

* Photo: AA - File

Click to read the article in Turkish

President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has filed a criminal complaint against main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Parliamentary Group Deputy Chair and Sakarya MP Engin Özkoç and CHP İstanbul MP Aykut Erdoğdu.

Filed by Erdoğan's lawyer Hüseyin Aydın, the criminal complaint brings the charge of "insulting the President" against the MPs.

In his petition of criminal complaint, lawyer Aydın has argued that the remarks of Engin Özkoç and Aykut Erdoğdu during a program on TELE1 on January 14, 2022 "were of insulting nature against personality rights and reached the level of slander and insult." The lawyer has also alleged that the remarks of the MPs "exceeded the limits of freedom of expression."

Accordingly, a request has been made to file a civil suit for "insulting the President" against Engin Özkoç and Aykut Erdoğdu.

CLICK - BİA Media Monitoring 2021 Annual Report: 'Journalists' struggle for freedom, a glimmer of hope from the judiciary'

According to the latest BİA Media Monitoring Report, 70 journalists have been convicted of "insulting the President" in the last 7 years since AKP Chair Erdoğan was elected the President for the first time.

What happened?

Journalist Sedef Kabaş was arrested on January 22 for "insulting the President" because of her words during a live broadcast a week ago.

"There is a famous saying, 'A crowned head will get wiser.' But we see that this isn't the reality. There is also a saying that is the exact opposite: 'When cattle go into a palace, they don't become the king; the palace becomes a barn'," Kabaş said during a program on TELE1 TV on January 14.

A week later, she posted the second quote on her Twitter and Instagram accounts as a "Circassian proverb," replacing the word "cattle" with "ox."

Shortly after, at around 2 a.m. on Saturday, she was detained during a police raid. Hours later, a penal judgeship of peace remanded her in custody.

The RTÜK fine on TELE1

The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has fined TELE1 for criticism of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

TELE1 was fined for "inciting the people into animosity and hatred" because of the remarks of journalist Sedef Kabaş.

The RTÜK also suspended the program that Sedef Kabaş attended, "Demokrasi Arenası" (the Arena of Democracy), for five episodes and banned journalist Uğur Dündar, the host of the program, from hosting any program on any TV channel for a month. The broadcaster will pay two separate fines of 5 percent and 3 percent of its ad revenue.

As the channel has been fined as per the Article 8/1/b of the Audio-Visual Media Law, its broadcast will be suspended for 10 days in the event that it is fined again as per the same article in 2022. If TELE1 is fined for the third time as per this article, its license will be canceled.

The Article 8/1/b of the Audio-Visual Media Law says, "Media services shall not incite the society to hatred and hostility by making discrimination on the grounds of race, language, religion, sex, class, region and sect or shall not constitute feelings of hatred in the society."

(AS/SD)