Daily Sözcü ordered to reinstate, pay compensation to unionized journalists

Click to read the article in Turkish

An İstanbul court has found that the Sözcü newspaper dismissed three journalists to prevent unionization.

Merih Bayraktar, Mecit Demir and Necdet Erence , who were members of the Journalists' Union of Turkey, were laid off in 2018.

The Bakırköy 26th Administrative Court ruled that the journalists should be reinstated and paid compensation in the amount of four salaries and 12 gross salaries for the period they remained unemployed.

The Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS) announced in early 2019 that Sözcü dismissed its members to prevent unionization.

"When it comes to talking, the executives of Sözcü newspaper advocate law, democracy, freedoms. Having many of its columnists, employees and even its owner unlawfully standing trial and always seeing solidarity from our union because of that, Sözcü disregards the constitutional rights of its own employees," the union had said.

According to bianet's Media Monitoring Reports, 215 journalists lost their jobs in 2020. (HA/VK)