‘Emotional Impact’ Ruling by Constitutional Court: Press Freedom of Yeni Akit Violated

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The Constitutional Court has announced its justified ruling on Kenan Kıran and Ramazan Fatih Uğurlu from pro-government daily Yeni Akit.

The Court has indicated that though the newspaper reported false information about the person in question, the news report still falls within the scope of freedom of expression. Accordingly, the Court has concluded that the freedom of expression and press of Yeni Akit has been violated.

Referring to the Civil Court of First Instance that sentenced the newspaper to pay damages due to its news, the Court has indicated that "the court did not strike a fair balance between the journalists' freedom of expression and the right to honor and dignity of the person, to whom they paid the damages."

What happened?

The news report in question was about the Public Personnel Selection Examination (KPSS) dated July 10, 2010. 3,227 candidates scored 100 and over out of 120 in the exam. After it was understood that almost 1,500 of these people were close relatives and 900 of them were married, the Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM) launched an investigation. When the exam was held again, candidates scored worse.

Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation on charges of "being members of an armed terrorist organization, fraud to the detriment of public bodies and institutions and forgery of official documents."

One of the investigated people was S.D. The investigation turned into a lawsuit and it was heard by the Ankara 2nd Heavy Penal Court. S.D. was acquitted. The court of appeal has not yet announced its ruling on S.D.

Yeni Akit reported the news 5 years later

Daily Yeni Akit reported on the investigation into KPSS examination on January 20, 2015, five years after the incident.

On this date, they published a news report entitled "Here is the Parallel in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), Spouses of Military Officers Served with KPSS Questions Scored 120 out of 120 as Well."

The news report indicated that the investigation was launched upon suspicions regarding the exam results. It was said, "In the investigation, it was detected that the spouses and relatives of 263 military officers living in military lodgings scored over 100 points and 24 of them answered all of the questions. The investigation has uncovered the officers in parallel state structure detected to have links with the TSK. The officers have revealed themselves with the money received by their spouses and relatives."

In another news article by Kenan Kıran entitled "They scored full", the names of the ones who were investigated were written openly. Among the ones whose names were written in full was also S.D.

S.D. filed a lawsuit for non-pecuniary damages against Kıran and Yeni Akit Newspaper Editorial Board Member Fatih Uğurlu. Claiming that "his/her personal rights were violated by the news report in question", S.D. requested 1,000 Turkish Lira (TRY) in damages.

Court: The news of 'They scored full' is unreal

Finding the application of S.D. justified, the Ankara 8th Civil Court of First Instance indicated that the allegation that S.D. scored full in the exam did not reflect the truth. Considering that "the news was unreal in that respect", the court concluded that "the personal rights of S.D. were violated.

After the verdict of the court became definite, Kıran and Uğurlu appealed to the Constitutional Court.

'They were sentenced because news was not correct'

The justified ruling of the Constitutional Court was published on the Official Gazette today (November 19).

The ruling of the Court has underlined that the two journalists were obliged to check whether the news was correct or not and they were sentenced to pay damages because the news was not correct.

However, the Court has also indicated that "expecting journalists to act like prosecutors obligated to verify the accuracy of a statement imposes an excessive burden on them and such an obligation might cause unjust results in cases where they stand trial as defendants or suspects."

'There was no malicious intent in the news'

The Constitutional Court has also commented on the fact that the name of S.D. was written in full in the news report. "It can be admitted that writing the name of the complainant in full is offensive", the Court has indicated and added, "However, freedom of expression needs to be considered independently of emotional impacts created by the expression."

Referring to the public nature of the news report in question, the Court has indicated that Kıran and Uğurlu "based their allegations on an official investigation and, for that reason, it cannot be said that the allegations in the news were misreported with malicious intent or by changing the facts."

Accordingly, the Constitutional Court has concluded that the freedoms of expression and press guaranteed by the Articles 26 and 28 of the Constitution have been violated. The case file will be returned to the Ankara 8th Civil Court of First Instance for retrial. (AS/SD)