Jail term when Cumhuriyet reports it

Our newspaper’s reporter Canan Coşkun has been sentenced to two years and three months’ imprisonment on the count of “targeting people serving in the fight against terrorism.” The court neither applied a reduction nor did it defer the sentence.

 A trial was instituted against our newspaper’s reporter Canan Coşkun, who reported on the interrogation at the public prosecutor’s office to which the twenty lawyers who had been arrested as part of an investigation being conducted into DHKP-C were taken in September, on the charge of “targeting people serving in the fight against terrorism,” and a jail term of up to three years was sought for Coşkun. The ruling hearing of the trial was heard yesterday at Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 26. The hearing was attended by Coşkun’s lawyers Bülent Utku and Abbas Yalçın. Along with CHP MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu and Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions Press Union General Chair Faruk Eren, many journalists monitored the hearing.

 I will carry on in the same manner

 Stating in her defence on the merits that she had engaged in court reporting attached to Cumhuriyet newspaper since 2013, Coşkun said that lawyers, courts, judges, prosecutors, defendants, suspects and witnesses featured in the reports she wrote. Coşkun responded as follows to the charges laid in the recommendation on the merits:

 “Following the recommendation, I scrutinized the archives to see who had been witnesses in investigations of concern to the public and what they had said. For example, there was a restriction order at the investigation stage on the file into Agos newspaper Editor-in-Chief Hrant Dink. At that stage, the procurer of the murder, Erhan Tuncel, and the gunman, Ogün Samast, had testified as witnesses. Hence, their statements had news value. Had I been consumed by the thought at that moment, “There is a restriction order,” I would have been unable to do my job. I was not the only person to have reported it, either. So, the prosecutor is both inadequately and mistakenly informed. The report for which I have been charged is not the first report I have written on a restricted investigation. Since none of them compromised the purpose of the investigation, proceedings were not brought over them. I will carry on in the same manner from now on because I believe this to be what the social memory demands. A further charge by the prosecutor is that by identifying witness Berk Ercan and his family, I made them into a target for terrorist organisations. According to the prosecutor, I identified Berk Ercan and his family. It is unclear how I did this. Neither a photograph was carried nor a description made in the report. As to his family, there is not a single word. The prosecutor additionally says that Berk Ercan had availed himself of effective contrition and had contributed to uncovering the organisation’s activities. There is nothing in the prosecution interrogation on which my report is based to the effect that Berk Ercan had availed himself of effective contrition. It was thus impossible for me to have known something that was not written there at the time I wrote the report.”

 Components of the offence not constituted

 One of Coşkun’s lawyers, Bülent Utku, also noted that there was no mention of Berk Ercan’s family in the report over which charges were laid. Utku said, “Berk Ercan’s status in the investigation is crucial in terms of whether there was a crime. Separate provision has been made in the Turkish Penal Code for effective contrition and serving as a witness. One who invokes effective contrition is not a witness, and a witness is not one who invokes effective contrition. The most crucial point is that Berk Ercan is not a person serving in the fight against terrorism as per the definitions contained in Article 6/1 of the Law on Combatting Terrorism. Since he did not have the status of a public servant, the components of the offence of which she is accused for having made the report were not constituted.”

 Not a crime for others

 Lawyer Abbas Yalçın recalled that the name of the witness featuring in the report, Berk Ercan, and photographs of his father and himself, had been used by Star and Takvim newspapers and Anadolu Agency and said, “When Berk Ercan is reported by these press outlets he is determined to be an organisation member, but when Cumhuriyet does so, he is said to be serving in the fight against terrorism.”

 Following the defences, the bench adjourned to pass its ruling. Asserting that Coşkun had strong intent, the bench handed down a two year and three month jail term. Charging that Coşkun’s attitude and demeanour at the hearing was negative, the bench ruled that there were no grounds for reducing the sentence as she had felt no contrition.

 He previously detained Güven

 On 15 May 2017, while serving on Istanbul Penal Judgeship of the Peace No 2, Presiding Judge Akın Gürlek ordered cumhuriyet.com.tr’s former Editor-in-Chief Oğuz Güven into detention for a tweet that had remained live for 53 seconds.

 THE RULING PROVIDES CLUES AS TO NEW TURKEY

 -CHP Istanbul MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu: Reporting the news and being a journalist on their own suffice for the court to have a “negative opinion.”

 -CHP Istanbul MP Mahmut Tanal: Imprisonment for the news report she made is to restrict the people’s freedom to obtain news. Journalist Canan Coşkun is not alone. Journalism is not a crime!

 Former CHP Istanbul MP Barış Yarkadaş: Imprisoning Cumhuriyet reporter Canan Çoskun for a report she made amounts to saying, “Do not inform the people.” The policy of intimidating journalists must be ended. Canan Coşkun is a journalist and did her job. Informing the people is not a crime! We are at Canan’s side.

 -Turkish Union of Journalists: Canan Çoskun has been sentenced to two years and three months’ imprisonment on the grounds that the “name of the witness was mentioned” in the report on the arrest of Gülmen and Özakça’s lawyers. The charge is “making people serving in the fight against terrorism into a target for terrorist organisations.”

 - Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions Press Union: The imprisoning of a journalist for doing her job on the day the state of emergency is supposedly lifted provides clues as to new Turkey. Under the most recent decrees with the force of law to have been issued, there is a progressive move towards a regime in which everyone who does not think, live and speak in line with Tayyip Erdoğan’s wishes, including trade unions and associations, will be punished.

 -Musician Ferhat Tunç: Cumhuriyet newspaper reporter Canan Coşkun has been sentenced to two years and three months’ imprisonment. Also, no reduction was made to the sentence nor was it deferred. Canan’s sole crime is to be a principled and brave journalist. We are now living in a country where this is deemed to be a crime.

 AKP medyası yazınca normal, Cumhuriyet'e hapis