The Court: Police Interference in Right to Demand Information is Unacceptable

İstanbul 3rd Administrative Court convicted Ministry of the Interior paying a fine of 825 Euros to photo-journalist Mehmet Kaçmaz, injured by a rubber bullet fired by the police during Gezi Park Resistance.

"Police should help journalists"

Administrative Court stated:

 “Law enforcement officers’ interference in right to demand information of journalists who struggle under harsh conditions to do their jobs instead of helping them is unacceptable.

Law enforcement officers are assigned to provide all possibilities for journalists to have right to demand information because this is the only possible way for citizens to have information in a most accurate and reliable way.

Helping journalists to starkly provide the truth is a sine qua non for a state of law. It is natural for internal control to choose the law enforcement officers and to train them.”

Kaçmaz: We filed a suit for the incident to be recorded

Mehmet Kaçmaz told bianet:

“We didn’t expect such a result when we filed the suit. We wanted the incident to be recorded in official statements of the state. However, we are surprised that the court’s verdict is in accordance with international principals of the press.”

Journalist Kaçmaz had transient blindness after hit in the left eye by a rubber bullet fired by the police on July 8, 2013. Kaçmaz stated he hadn’t visual loss after two years but his left eye’s iris was bigger than the other and so he could have a risk of cataract in the future. (EA/BD)

 Click here to read the article in Turkish

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