Oda TV website News Director Barış Terkoğlu is standing trial for allegedly insulting Nureddin Yıldız, the author of the Milli Gazete and the Chairperson of the Social Tissue Foundation, due to his news article on Yıldız’s “fetvas” which states that “children can get married after the age of six”. The trial began on 28 November 2017 at the Istanbul Anatolian 65th Criminal Assize Court. The journalist Terkoğlu, who was facing 2 years and 8 months of imprisonment, stated in his defense that a widespread censorship was applied in order to prevent the words of Yıldız from reaching the public and that the 18 news stories published in the last three years on the Odatv website had their share. “Even the news of this indictment is banned,” he said. The trial will continue on 14 December 2018.
At the hearing on 14 December 2018, the court considered the “pervert” interpretation as a reaction to an unjust act and decided that “there was no place for punishment”.