Fox TV Anchor Fatih Portakal Faces Prison Term over Comments on Pandemic

Click to read the article in Turkish

Fox TV anchor Fatih Portakal has been indicted for violating the Banking Law upon a complaint by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK). He is charged with violating Article 74 of the law, titled "Protection of Reputation."

Portakal is facing charges for a comment he made on the government's economic measures for the coronavirus pandemic. He had said in a tweet in early April that "he wouldn't be surprised" if the government imposed a "National Tax," referring to a practice during the country's War of Independence in the early 1920s.

CLICK - President Erdoğan, Banking Agency File Complaint Against TV Anchor Fatih Portakal

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan previously referred to the National Tax (Tekalif-i Milliye) when defending a fundraising campaign for the coronavirus outbreak.

The indictment says that Portakal posted the tweet to "create a perception and an opinion that the state could ask for money from depositors on the excuse of the epidemic and would pay the money back after the epidemic."

Both the BDDK and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had filed a complaint against Portakal. Erdoğan alleged that the TV anchor "posted false social media messages to manipulate the public" and the BDDK stated that he "shared unreal and intentional social media messages about the banking and fiscal system."

(HA/VK)