Turkey: Court Imposed Journalist Çiğdem Toker To Pay A Fine Of 30 Thousand Turkish Liras Over Her Report About Municipality’s Budget
Location: Turkey, Istanbul
Date: March 24, 2022Available in: 🇹🇷 Türkçe
The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) condemns the İstanbul court’s verdict on journalist Çiğdem Toker to pay a fine of 30,000 Turkish liras (over 2,000 USD) over an article she reported about the budget of İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality. The decision is an abuse of law to gag critical voices and journalists. We reiterate that journalism is not a crime.
The lawsuit was in retaliation to Çiğdem’s article in Sözcü Daily titled "Service to the Foundation from the İstanbul Municipality’s report", which revealed budgetary reports of the Istanbul Municipality. Following the publication of the article, on February 12th, 2019, T3 Foundation’s lawyers Abdullah Demircan and Serkan Kaya submitted a petition of complaint to the İstanbul Küçükçekmece Civil Court of First Instance asking for a claim for their damages. The petition also remarked, “It is necessary to question the patriotism of the journalist who penned this article and the editors who published her article.”
According to Çiğdem’s article, in the said report, the municipality provided a balance sheet of its cash and in-kind support up until the year 2018 to NGOs known to be close to the government and some of which are managed by the President’s relatives. Çiğdem Toker was sued for 80 thousand Turkish Lira in compensation.
At the eighth hearing of the case against the journalist, the court imposed Çiğdem to pay in non-pecuniary damages to the plaintiff T3 Foundation which had worked with İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
According to Barış Kop, from the Media and Legal Studies Association (MLSA), Çiğdem’s lawyer Fahri Emeksiz said that the article that Çiğdem wrote was sufficient for reporting the facts and was not contrary to press legislation. The subject of the case was previously discussed in the municipality, and the minutes of the issue were recorded. Lawyer Emeksiz requested the court to dismiss the case on the grounds of press freedom.
However, on the other side of the case, the plaintiff’s lawyer defended that Çiğdem should be punished claiming that she did not fulfill her obligation to investigate the information, and she acted against the principles of journalism.
The court ruled that journalist Çiğdem Toker should pay 30 thousand TL for non-pecuniary damage to the T3 Foundation.
The CFWIJ considers the defamation cases brought against journalists a despicable means to intimidate the press. Journalists are obliged to inform the public and therefore, cannot be prosecuted. We demand the authorities retract the attempts to silence journalists through the judiciary. Çiğdem Toker is a journalist. We demand the annulment of all groundless charges against her and the acquittal of the journalist.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.
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