‘The fine for injuring a journalist is apparently 4,500 lira’

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The recent physical assault on journalist Levent Gültekin is neither the first nor the last incident of violence targeting journalists in Turkey.

That is, while seven journalists were physically attacked in the first three months of 2021, 18 journalists were attacked in 2020 and 139 journalists have been attacked in Turkey in the last five years.

It is also a fact that there is a connection between politicians' hate speech and the attacks targeting journalists in the country. 

The attack on Levent Gültekin is the most recent example that has once again brought this connection and the impunity for perpetrators of violence against journalists as a pressing issue to the public agenda.

Yeniçağ newspaper columnist Yavuz Selim Demirağ, Odatv columnist Sabahattin Önkibar, Akdeniz'de Yeni Yüzyıl newspaper columnist İdris Özyol, journalist Can Dündar, Korkusuz columnist Ahmet Takan and Karacabey Yörem newspaper grant holder Şaban Önen are only some of the journalists subjected to physical attacks in the last years.

Let's listen to them about the impunity ensuing the attacks:

Dündar: The judge saw good conduct

(While the judgement was being awaited in the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks case at İstanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan, journalist and the then Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar was targeted in an armed attack in front of the courthouse. NTV reporter Yağız Şenkal was wounded in his leg. The assaulter was Murat Şahin. | May 2016)

"The attack was carried out in the most protected area of İstanbul. The security directorate gave me a security guard as I was receiving threats back then; but my guard did not come that day, saying he had some errands to run. A person named Murat Şahin came up and shot at me in the most protected area of İstanbul, calling me a 'traitor.'

"Yağız Şenkal was with me. 'You are the target, get away from here,' Yağız told me, shielding me in the meanwhile. He was shot with a bullet in his foot. They caught the assaulter there. As far as I know, he faced up to 12 years in prison because of this attack.

"His two connections were revealed during this process; his connection with a mafia leader was identified, but it was not addressed. The trial continued for around two years and a half. But at the end of these two and a half years, he was not given a sentence or something. He did not get a sentence because he attacked me. The assaulter was given 10 months in prison and a fine of 4 thousand 500 lira. He was fined because Yağız was wounded.

"In fact, the court gave a heavier sentence for possession of an unregistered gun than for the attack and the ensuing injury. And this sentence was 10 months in prison. He had already served six months of it and was released. All in all, we saw that the price to pay for injuring a journalist was 4,500 lira and the court divided it into installments due to good conduct.

"In the meanwhile, they gave the assaulter's passport back, they took mine and that of my wife. It was as if they rewarded the assaulter, thinking that perhaps he might have thought of going abroad."

Takan: He will pay 2,000 lira in 20 months

(He was attacked with a baseball bat in front of his house in Dikmen, Ankara. The assaulter was Emre Aydemir. | November 2019)

"A group of people came to me in a vehicle, but only one attacked me. They brought this person against me as the defendant, but they did not even investigate the persons inside the vehicle. It was so funny that everything was prepared beforehand. It was much much later when I learned that the assaulter was caught. They hid it from me for a long time. When I requested a confrontation, they did not do it, either. They told me that there was no such obligation. I asked, 'How come?' But can you explain it to them?

"I did not have an attorney, I asked a friend for it. The one who assaulted me had two attorneys at the hearing. Can you imagine it? The one who attacked me was a freebooter and he had two attorneys.

"Speaking at the court, he said that he saw me while entering a society for the protection of children, asked me about an article of mine, I rebuffed him and he attacked me, seeing that I reached for my waist and thinking that I would attack him. But in the neighborhood where I live, there is neither a society for the protection of children nor do I have a gun.

"I tried to explain it at court, but the judge pretended to not understand it. The baseball bat used for attacking me was not even considered evidence by the court. The assaulter was sentenced to pay 2 thousand lira fine due to good conduct. The judge apparently saw his good conduct. There were only two hearings and the defendant did not attend one of them. I do not know what kind of good conduct the judge saw. If I have the opportunity one day, I will go to him and say, 'Don't bother with it, bro; let me pay it for you'.

"Such a judicial system has been established that I cannot even take it to the appeals court. I do not know what can be done in the face of this comedy, this play, this theater..."

Önkibar: No sanctions for attacks on journalists

(Önkibar was attacked twice: In November 2017, on the first day of the 36th TÜYAP International İstanbul Book Fair, and in May 2019, in front of his house in the capital city of Ankara.)

"In the trial over the attack on me at the TÜYAP Book Fair, the judgement was handed down in September 2020. Assaulters Alperen Gül and Sinan Paktunç were given a meagre judicial fine by the court.

"The trial over the attack in Ankara is still ongoing. The assaulters were caught on that very day. At the night of the day when the attack happened, the Governor of Ankara called me. He said, 'They rented a car, we found the rent-a-car company, we will catch them soon.' It indeed happened as he said. They detained three people at midnight. They were released afterwards. There were no arrests anyway. The lawsuit was filed. The trial is still ongoing. It will end soon, but they will get away with it with a meagre judicial fine, as was the case in the previous incident.

"There is something interesting about this: All three of them had criminal records for both drugs and theft. One of them also had a criminal record for sexual assault. This is the new profile of an 'idealist' (referring to ultranationalist Grey Wolves). When we look at the assaults on other journalists, we see the same profile. There is neither arrest nor anything else of that sort. There are no sanctions for attacking journalists.

"On the very contrary, [AKP ally Nationalist Movement Party/MHP Chair] Devlet Bahçeli targets people and we are on top of the list of those targeted by him. And the teens at the bottom carry out the attacks. It is, unfortunately, the reality in Turkey."

Demirağ: Prosecutor didn't summon me

(He was attacked by a group of 8-9 people with sticks in front of his house in Ankara. He was wounded in his head and arm. | May 2019)

"It has been almost two years since then. There is still no indictment in sight. When I was at the hospital, the police came and took my statement. The prosecutor has not yet summoned me to depose. He or she has not yet taken the statements of the assaulters, either.

"After the assaulters were taken into custody, they were released by the prosecutor because I was not in a life-threatening condition. That is all what has happened in the file of this case in the last two years. The men are free outside, posing as heroes. As they are not penalized, the other thugs of the neighborhood are encouraged by them.

"I made an application via my attorneys, but they have not yet given an answer. They do not see me as a person worth addressing, they do not regard me as a citizen.

"When I was still at hospital, I said that if the necessary measures were not taken, the violence against journalists would intensify. It is indeed gradually intensifying. Sticks are now replaced by guns. It is concerning."

Önen: They are not arrested

(He was attacked by ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) Karacabey Mayor Ali Özkan's relatives at the lorry garage of Karacabey Municipality in Bursa. | August 2020)

"Those who attacked me did so by referring to Mayor Ali Özkan by name. They referred to him as 'my maternal uncle' while attacking me. That was how I understood that they were relatives with Özkan. They attacked me because I was writing about Özkan as a journalist. While attacking me, they said things like, 'You won't write or draw anything about my uncle, okay.'

"But, in the end, the assaulters are not arrested, they are free outside. The law enforcement officers took the assaulters' statements, that was all they did. Then, they kept on walking free outside.

"The judicial process is still ongoing, but even the first hearing has not been held yet. The arbiter came a month ago and I said I wanted to take it to court. I am now waiting for the trial. The law is operating a bit slowly."

Özyol: Assaulters caught in MHP building

(He was attacked with a baseball bat by the driver of Talu Bilgili, the MHP Muratpaşa District Chair. There were two assaulters. | May 2019)

"The assaulters were identified from the cameras, they also had images and they were caught in the party's district building where they went after the attack. I identified them, but they were released after giving their statements.

"We waited for a long time for a lawsuit to be filed. Two hearings have been held so far, but while the process was ongoing, MHP Muratpaşa District Chair Talu Bilgili, who instigated the attack, filed a lawsuit against me on charge of insult. That court case was heard quite swiftly and I was sentenced to three months in prison. As for the trial over the attack, it is still ongoing. The prosecutor demands penalization for actual bodily harm.

"I do not know how this trial will proceed or whether they will get a sentence or not. To be honest, I am not hopeful anymore. Because the idea of punishing the journalist has become a way of doing politics in Turkey, it has become systematic." (HA/SD)