MEDIA MONITORING DATABASE
Investigation against Ferhat Parlak – allegations of “insult” and “marking as a target”
RELATED PERSON OR INSTITUTION
Ferhat Parlak
CITY
Diyarbakır
YEAR OF INTERFERENCE
2022
LAST UPDATED
08/04/2022
TYPE OF STATEMENT
Political
MEDIUM
Internet
News Agency
THE TITLE OF WHOSE RIGHT IS INTERFERED
Journalist
RIGHTS GUARANTEED UNDER THE RIGHT OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Right to Impart Information and Ideas
TYPE OF INTERFERENCE
Judicial Interference
Public Prosecution Offices
Opening a criminal investigation
THE LEGAL GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE
Turkish Penal Code
Art. 125/1

Having reported on a child who had fallen into a sewage hole which did not have a cover in Diyarbakır’s Silvan district, journalist Ferhat Parlak was faced with a criminal complaint filed by the Silvan Municipality’s lawyer over the news report titled “A child back from the dead in Silvan”. Citing this news report published on December 18, 2021, the lawyer pressed the charges of “insult” and “marking as a target” against the journalist (February 25).

In the investigation launched against Ferhat Parlak upon the criminal complaint of the trustee appointed to the municipality, a decision of non-prosecution was given. Completing the investigation, the Silvan Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office concluded that the remarks in posting the news report in question fell within the scope of freedom of expression and press (April 8).