MEDIA MONITORING DATABASE
Fatih Polat – trial for “insulting the President of the Republic”
RELATED PERSON OR INSTITUTION
Fatih Polat
CITY
İstanbul
YEAR OF INTERFERENCE
2019
LAST UPDATED
01/12/2019
TYPE OF STATEMENT
Political
MEDIUM
Print Media
Newspaper
THE TITLE OF WHOSE RIGHT IS INTERFERED
Editor / Editor-In-Chief
RIGHTS GUARANTEED UNDER THE RIGHT OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Right to Impart Information and Ideas
TYPE OF INTERFERENCE
Judicial Interference
Criminal Courts
Decision of acquittal
THE LEGAL GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE
Turkish Penal Code
Art. 299

Journalist Fatih Polat stands trial for “insulting the president of Republic” charges because of his column published in Evrensel on 28 May 2017 titled “Do the respondents have anything to say about these allegations against the Erdoğan family?” regarding the secret offshore agreements of Erdoğan’s family.

In the last hearing held on May 14, the court decided to seek the opinion of Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS) and Turkish Journalists’ Association (TGC) regarding the web site and the journalist Polat used as his news source to confirm their legitimacy. The trial is adjourned until 17 September.

Journalist Fatih Polat stands trial for “insulting the president of the Republic” charges because of his column published in Evrensel on 28 May 2017 titled “Do the respondents have anything to say about these allegations regarding the Erdoğan family?” regarding the secret offshore agreements of Erdoğan’s family.

At the hearing held on May 14, the court decided to seek the opinion of Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS) and Turkish Journalists’ Association (TGC) which were submitted and accepted by the court at the following hearing held on September 17. The trial is adjourned until November 14.

Announcing its decision at the end of the hearing, the Bakırköy 31st Criminal Court of First Instance ruled to acquit Polat of “insulting the President of the Republic” on the grounds that the article was within the scope of the freedom to inform the public as per Article 28 of the Constitution (14 Kasım).