MEDIA MONITORING DATABASE
İsmail Küçükkaya – trial for “publicly insulting a public official” and “degrading the institutions and bodies of the state”
RELATED PERSON OR INSTITUTION
İsmail Küçükkaya
CITY
İstanbul
YEAR OF INTERFERENCE
2018
LAST UPDATED
23/11/2019
TYPE OF STATEMENT
Political
MEDIUM
Television
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
Suspension of the execution of the sentences of imprisonment
THE LEGAL GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE
Turkish Penal Code
Art. 301

Fox News Host İsmail Küçükkaya reported that he learned from his news sources in Turkey’s capital city of Ankara, that the husband of a certain Minister had been using ByLock, an encrypted communication software allegedly used among the members of the Gülen community and claimed that the Minister and her husband had decided to divorce. Upon the report, rumors spread in the social media that the minister Küçükkaya talked about, was Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya. Sayan-Kaya denied the claims.

Following this, in the libel suit filed against journalist İsmail Küçükkaya and attorney Fidel Okan on the ground of their remarks regarding Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya and her husband, Küçükkaya and Okan have been sentenced to 16 months and 20 days in prison on charges of “publicly insulting a public officer” (Turkish Penal Code, Article No. 125) and “publicly insulting institutions and bodies of Republic of Turkey” (Turkish Penal Code, Article No. 301).

The 18th Criminal Court of First Instance has suspended the prison sentences.