Court Hands Fine to Hosting Co., not Writer

According to a statement from the www.sanliurfa.com site, the hosting company Urfa.Net is shutting the website down. The site has been active for two years.

A Turkish court handed Tascilar a total fine of five billion and 986 million Turkish lira (USD 4,500). About five billion Turkish lira (USD 3,700) of this fine is for damages.

Tascilar appealed the case.

The court said that the article, published on the website on August 28, 2003, constituted assault on the governor's personal rights. It based its decision on law no: 4756 accepted on May 15, 2002.

According to this regulation, which added an article to the Turkey's press law, and which went into effect on May 21, "The articles of this law, which are about the physical and moral damages that rise from untrue stories, defamations and similar acts, is applicable to every written article, picture, sign, audio-visual image, etc. published through information technologies on the Internet."

The court said it had determined, through expert investigation and report, that Muhammet Tascilar had written the article.

Tascilar: Bilgin is responsible of the site

In a petition handed to the Sanliurfa prosecutor's office on September 13, 2003, Muhammet Tascilar said he had not written the article. Tascilar said he only gave hosting and design services to the website and added that Ahmet Bilgin was responsible of the website. Bilgin lives in France, according to Tascilar.

Tascilar said Urfa.Net hosted 98 percent of all websites in Sanliurfa and added that the expert report was not objective.

Tascilar said the expert worked in an institution related with the Afyon governor's office and that he was an agricultural engineer and a computer programmer.

Bilgin: Our website is being shut down

In the article titled "Tabela" (Nameplate), the writer had written that the former governor Dilek employed a former convict Mustafa Sahin, due to political pressure. The article said that although Sahin was involved in illegal acts, the governor made him the head of a body.

"I wonder why the governor favored Mustafa Sahin," asked the article, which said: "Dilek, who draws the image of an honest governor, showed how honest he was. May Allah make his business run smooth. Now he is the governor of Afyon. The cream of Afyon is very good."

A text on the www.sanliurfa.com, signed by site manager Ahmet Bilgin, said the site would be shut down by the Urfa.Net company. Bilgin's Paris address also appeared on the text. (EO/BB/EA/YE)