MEDIA MONITORING DATABASE
Orhan Uğuroğlu – trial for “insulting the President of the Republic”
RELATED PERSON OR INSTITUTION
Orhan Uğuroğlu
CITY
İstanbul
YEAR OF INTERFERENCE
2021
LAST UPDATED
05/03/2021
TYPE OF STATEMENT
Political
MEDIUM
Print Media
Newspaper
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
Criminal Courts
Approval of the indictment and initiating the prosecution
THE LEGAL GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE
Turkish Penal Code
Art. 299

Orhan Uğuroğlu, the Ankara Representative of Yeniçağ Newspaper, was put on trial on charge of “insulting the President of the Republic” by the Bakırköy Criminal Court of First Instance on the grounds that he called the President “whiny” (ağlak) in his article titled “Erdoğan committed a crime in office” (Erdoğan görev suçu işledi) dated June 21, 2019.

At the first hearing of the trial held on March 5, 2021, the attorney of Uğuroğlu stated that the article of the journalist was within freedom of expression and press. The next hearing will be held on March 31 (March 5).