Yet Another 301 Case Agaimnst a Journalist

Umut Karakoyun, owner of the local "Tunceli Emek" newspaper in Tunceli, eastern Anatolia, is being tried under Article 301 for accusing the judiciary of bias.

Karakoyun has claimed that the Tunceli governor's office obstructed advertisements in an arbitrary manner and had written about the governor's press and PR manager Elif Polat. Karakoyun is also accused of "insulting a public officer through the media".

The case continued at the Tunceli Penal Court on 24 July and was postponed until 21 September for the Republican prosecutor Ali Cetin Yilmaz to prepare his deliberations.

The hearing was attended by lawyer Erdal Dogan who represented Umut Karakoyun, and by plaintiff Polat.

Pressure applied by governor

Dogan demanded that the journalist's aunt Hüsniye Karakoyun be heard as a witness. The court accepted the demand and listened to Hüsniye Karakoyun, a primary school teacher. She testified that her nephew faced various limitations and impositions by the governor and the governor's press and PR manager when trying to publish the newspaper.

She said, "Umut Karakoyun wrote the article because of the pressure." Elif Polat, however, denied being part of any kind of imposition.

Umut Karakoyun said, "I believe that the article, which was written after Elif Polat exerted pressure on me and my newspaper, does not include any insult. All the proof is in the case file."

The local newspaper had published the statement "We have witnessed how biased the judiciary is operating. In the corridors of the law court" in its issue of 3-6 October 2006. This statement as well as the claim that the governor had not replied to applications, and that manager Polat was being protected had lead to the journalist being put on trial on 30 November 2006. (EÖ/AG)