Inspectors Should Know Their Place

Press Council deputy chair Dogan Heper criticizes police inspectors for inviting Milliyet reporter Tolga Sardan to obtain information. Says inspectors should know their place and respect confidentiality of news sources.

Erol Önderoğlu

Press Council deputy chair Dogan Heper has protested an attempt by Turkey's National Police Directorate inspectors to question Milliyet reporter Tolga Sardan for information related to a news report he filed.

Heper invited the inspectors "to know their place and to conduct their investigations without breaching the limits of duty". He said the attempt to question Sardan by inviting him to be present before the inspectors was a violation of the confidentiality of news source and argued that any relevant information that needed to be publicly known was already in Sardan's April 4, 2004 news report.

Sardan received an invitation from Chief Inspector Ismail Yildiz to visit the Police Directorate after the report was published in the daily Milliyet.

Heper said Yildiz or the police general directorate that would have tasked him to question Sardan, were "using an authority that does not exist under the laws" adding that the invitation was an attempt against the principle of journalists not revealing their sources. (EO/KO/II/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.