Tax Immunity of SETA Foundation Blacklisting Journalists on Parliamentary Agenda

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) MP and former journalist Utku Çakırözer has announced that the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), which released a report targeting and blacklisting journalists working in international media outlets in Turkey, is exempt from paying taxes by a Council of Ministers' Decision dated 2013.

CLICK - Second Criminal Complaint Against SETA Report

Submitting a Parliamentary question regarding the report to Vice President Fuat Oktay, Çakırözer has asked why the SETA is considered a public benefit foundation and has tax immunity:

"The activities of a foundation that would request tax immunity need to be at the level of easing the public service burden of the state. Is blacklisting, targeting journalists public benefit?

"Where is the benefit of the public in issuing a memorandum on journalists? Is it the SETA's duty to lay the groundwork for investigations, indictments against journalists that it is exempt from taxes?"

'A reflection of government's polarizing language'

CHP MP Çakırözer said, "Each and every page of the report, including its title, is a reflection of the separating and polarizing language of the government" and continued as follows:

"Everyone has the right to criticize the news of a media outlet. However, no one has the duty to sort them out from an ideological perspective.

"Only and only the readers, whose right to information is served, thus the people, have the right to do this.

'We know this language from police reports'

"The language used in the report is very familiar. We know this language from police reports, intelligence documents, investigation minutes, indictments against journalists. This language is frequently used by the political judiciary, which has taken it as its duty to incriminate journalists who expressed opinions disliked by the government."

'Why does the SETA have tax immunity?'

Bringing the tax immunity of the SETA into Parliamentary agenda, Çakırözer has asked, "On what grounds is the SETA Foundation exempt from paying taxes by a Council of Minister's Decision? Which conditions did the Foundation meet to have tax immunity? Which activity of the SETA is at the level of easing the state's burden of providing public service?" (HA/SD)