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posted by janrinok on Thursday December 29 2016, @05:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the president-has-a-big-nose dept.

News of a NATO dictatorship:

Turkish authorities have arrested the cafeteria manager of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper for insulting the president after he said he would not serve tea to Tayyip Erdogan, one of the manager's lawyers told Reuters on Monday. Senol Buran, who runs the cafeteria at the Istanbul office of Cumhuriyet, was taken into custody after police raided his home late on Saturday, lawyer Ozgur Urfa said. The newspaper is among the few still critical of the government. Insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison in Turkey.

[...] Buran was detained after a police officer providing security for the newspaper said he heard him use a derogatory term to describe Erdogan and say he would refuse to serve the president tea if he ever visited the cafeteria, his lawyer said. According to court documents obtained by Reuters, Buran has denied using an insulting term, while confirming that he had said he would refuse to serve the president tea. He also said he had a dispute with the police officer two years ago.

The judge at an Istanbul court on Sunday ordered Buran's arrest pending trial, citing "strong suspicion of crime committed" and saying the suspect might otherwise put pressure on witnesses, the documents showed.

Previously: Turkey's Erdogan Continues Crackdown on Media with Detention of Cumhuriyet Newspaper Staff (same newspaper)


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  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday December 29 2016, @04:27PM

    by Pino P (4721) on Thursday December 29 2016, @04:27PM (#447112) Journal

    The law in question appears to be Article 301 [wikipedia.org]:

    A person who publicly denigrates the Turkish Nation, the State of the Turkish Republic or the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the judicial institutions of the State shall be punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years. [...] Expressions of thought intended to criticize shall not constitute a crime.

    The dictionary defines "denigrate" [wiktionary.org] as "defame", making this appear little different from a typical libel law [wikipedia.org]. I know nothing about Turkish libel law, but libel laws elsewhere include a defense for substantially true statements [wikipedia.org], such as reliably sourced facts and reasonable conclusions drawn from those facts, which are expressed in a civil manner [wikipedia.org]. If this is true of Turkish libel law as well, then an article showing evidence of material lies by President Erdoğan could justify "from the president-has-a-big-nose dept."

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