President Takes Terror Law to Court
The President had ratified the law on July 17 and it went into force a day later after being published in the Official Gazette. But, he said then that he would take some of its articles to the Constitutional Court.
Filing his application with the Court on August 3, Thursday, Sezer pointed out that articles 6 and 7 of the Anti-Terror Law which allowed for owners and editors of media organizations to be heavily fined even where they had not participated in an offence was against article 38 of the Turkish Constitution which outlined the principle that "criminal responsibility was individual".
The controversial TMY articles 6 & 7, on the other hand, foresee the fining of owners and editors of publications for offences in the publication involving "disclosure of the identities of public officials involved in the counter terrorism struggle" and "publishing the communiqués and statements of terror organizations" whether or not they have taken part in the offence.
Sezer warned that taking into consideration the daily fine under the Turkish Criminal Code, the fines to be passed for owners and editors of media organizations who have not taken part in an offence could be excessively high. The Anti-Terror law foresees fines ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 days for these offences with the maximum limit being 5,000 days for editors.
"...as this heavy sanction will create apprehension in press and publishing organizations, it is of the nature of preventing the free expression of news, thoughts and opinions" Sezer's application said.
The other article of the TMY Sezer has taken to court to be annulled is article 5 that limits the media's coverage of terrorism.
The article covers "publications openly encouraging the commission of crimes in the scope of the activities of a terror organization, praising committed crimes and criminals or containing terror organization propaganda" and allows for Public Prosecutors to issue orders in instances where delays need to be avoided, to suspend the said publication from 15 days up to a month. It article states that the prosecutor will inform a court of the decision within 24 hours and if the decision is not ratified by the court in 48 hours, the suspension will be void.
Ironically the first time this article was enforced against a publication since the amendment of the law was a day after Sezer's application to the Constitutional Court. On Friday, an Istanbul court accepted a prosecutor's office decision to suspend the daily Ulkede Ozgur Gundem newspaper from print for a stretch of 15 days amid concerns of upcoming repeat suspensions until this pro-Kurdish newspaper is effectively closed down. (EO/TK/II/YE)