{"id":88891,"date":"2026-05-21T20:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T20:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/88891\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T20:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T20:42:11","slug":"turkish-editors-investigated-on-charge-of-insulting-erdogan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/88891\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish editors investigated on charge of insulting Erdo\u011fan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/birgun_large.png\" data-caption=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- alt=\"\" title=\"birgun_large\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/birgun_large-696x464.png\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/birgun_large-696x464.png\"   alt=\"\" title=\"birgun_large\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turkish prosecutors are investigating two editors at the BirG\u00fcn newspaper on allegations of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan in an article that quoted a student group criticizing pressure on university students, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlsaturkey.com\/tr\/oegrencilere-acilan-sorusturmalari-haberlestiren-birgunun-yoneticilerine-cumhurbaskanina-hakaret-sorusturmasi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sefer Sel\u00e7uk \u00d6zbek, the managing editor responsible for legal affairs for BirG\u00fcn\u2019s website, and G\u00f6kay Ba\u015fcan, the managing editor responsible for legal affairs for its print edition, were questioned by the press crimes bureau of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thousands of people in Turkey are investigated, prosecuted or convicted on charges of insulting the president on the basis of the controversial Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The investigation concerns an August 24, 2025, article headlined \u201cYou cannot intimidate us with punishment and pressure.\u201d The article reported on disciplinary investigations, scholarship cancellations and dormitory expulsions targeting university students who attended protests linked to the detention and jailing of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u0130mamo\u011flu was detained on March 19, 2025, a day after Istanbul University annulled his diploma and days before the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) was set to formalize him as its presidential candidate. He was jailed pending trial on corruption charges four days later, allegations he and the CHP deny.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The passages cited by prosecutors were direct quotations from statements by the Middle East Technical University Alumni Association and Left Youth (Sol Gen\u00e7), a left-wing youth organization.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00d6zbek denied the accusation, saying the disputed remarks were not written by BirG\u00fcn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe expressions in the article were not written by us,\u201d \u00d6zbek said. \u201cThe statement by Sol Gen\u00e7 was quoted directly.\u201d Ba\u015fcan also rejected the accusation, saying the newspaper had directly quoted Sol Gen\u00e7\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their lawyer, Tolgay G\u00fcvercin, said the quoted remarks were part of standard news reporting and did not meet the legal elements of the crime of insulting the president.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 27 journalists\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/expressioninterrupted.com\/tr\/liste.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">are<\/a>\u00a0currently behind bars in Turkey. The country\u2019s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/rsf.org\/en\/country-t%252525252525C3%252525252525BCrkiye\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ranked<\/a>\u00a0163rd out of 180 nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turkish prosecutors are investigating two editors at the BirG\u00fcn newspaper on allegations of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[422,423,425,25126,426,47138,312,22122,427,428,429,431,47139,131,132,155],"class_list":["post-88891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-ak-party","tag-akp","tag-democracy","tag-ekrem-imamoglu","tag-erdogan","tag-gokay-bascan","tag-human-rights","tag-insulting-president","tag-justice","tag-law","tag-oppression","tag-rule-of-law","tag-sefer-selcuk-ozbek","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-turkey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116614512546711668","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}