Columnist Hayko Bağdat is being tried for “insult” due to the twitter correspondence between Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Melih Gökçek after the German Greens and Left Party deputy shared a wreath on the Armenian Genocide Monument. The trial initiated in 2015.
Ankara 24th Criminal Court of First Instance decided that the journalist committed the crime of insult in its decision dated 7.12.2015. Considering that Melih Gökçek’s statements constituted grievous provocation, the court went to a 1/3 discount and ordered a judicial fine of 1,160 TL.
Bağdad lodged an individual application with the Constitutional Court on January 6, 2016.
In its judgment of 28 November 2019, TCC ruled that the court’s decision violated Baghdad’s freedom of expression. The court said, “ (…) imposing a judicial fine on the applicant will put the applicant’s writing and journalistic activities under pressure. This situation may also damage the environment of criticism regarding the discourse and activities of politicians, which are an indispensable element of the democratic society. Therefore, in order to protect the reputation and rights of others, it was concluded that the interference with his freedom did not comply with the requirements of the democratic social order.”
