* Photo: Pixabay
Running a trial monitoring program since 2018 in cooperation with international civil society organizations, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) has released its Trial Monitoring Report for February.
According to the report, in February 2022, the MLSA monitored 50 hearings of 49 trials in 12 cities with 15 court monitors across Turkey.
In the 49 trials monitored in February, 409 people stood trial, among whom there were 121 journalists, 76 students, 63 activists, 31 politicians, 20 attorneys, six authors, four academics and one doctor.
68 of 76 students who appeared before the court in February were those who were taken into police custody in several protests against the appointment of Melih Bulu as the Rector of Boğaziçi University.
News, posts cited as evidence for 'terrorism'
Some other highlights from the MLSA report are as follows:
Except for the suits for damages against journalists Çiğdem Toker and Hazal Ocak, 407 people who were tried in 47 cases monitored in February faced a total of 74 charges in 14 different categories.
42 percent of the charges individuals faced was terrorism-related charges. 84 percent of terrorism-related charges were "membership in a terrorist organization" and "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" charges, which are leveled against journalists, activists and politicians.
In 6 cases out of 10 where the "propaganda" charge was among the charges defendants faced, the defendants were journalists. In 12 cases out of 16 in which "membership in a terrorist organization" charge was among the charges defendants faced, the defendants were journalists.
"Disclosing and/or publishing the identity of individuals on anti-terror duties and/or identifying those persons as targets", accounting for 7 percent of terrorism-related charges, is leveled only against journalists.
20 percent of the evidence cited for terrorism-related charges was the defendants' news reports, articles, photos and statements on a television show while 15 percent was social media posts. Among the evidence cited for terrorism-related charges, the ratio of journalists' phone conversations with their news sources was 11 percent.
In February, "insulting the president", as per the Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), constituted 7 percent of the charges. 75 percent of the evidence cited for this charge was social media posts and 25 percent was news reports, articles, photos and statements on a television show.
In January, 2 journalists, 4 politicians and 3 activists had been sentenced to 515 months. Also, journalist Rojhat Doğru had been sentenced to life in prison for "disrupting the unity and the integrity of the state."
In February 2022, 2 journalists and 1 author were sentenced to 112 months and 14 days in prison. (SD)
