Court gives lesson on press freedom
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 23, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - An Ankara court ordered a stay of execution on the Prime Ministry’s decision to cancel the press accreditation of a daily Milliyet reporter. The court said the reporter did not violate principles of his profession while covering the PM.
The accreditations of six reporters who cover Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were cancelled in November on grounds that they did not report "in line with journalistic principles."
Milliyet reporter Abdullah Karakuş applied to the court to annul the decision, arguing the decision was a kind of censorship.
In its decision, the court said the cancellation was not in line with the freedom of press and the laws. Such an implementation was also likely to create a deterrent effect on the reporters’ behest of producing news. The decision said Karakuş’s news did not harm the principles of journalism.
Referring to the respective items of the European Convention on Human Rights, or ECHR, the court said: "Making the journalist prove the value judgments and convictions is not possible. If the journalist is expected to prove his news based on phenomenon then his good will defense should be deemed sufficient."
"If the journalist has enough reasons to believe that a certain type of information is correct then they shouldn’t be punished. Instead of proving the reality, the journalist should be expected to perform research to a reasonable extent."
Meanwhile, Ankara representative of daily Milliyet Fikret Bila said in his column yesterday that the court’s decision should be taken as a lesson and that the Prime Ministry should give the press accreditation card back to Karakuş. The court decision required this. He said Karakuş’s news reports, which were shown as the reasons for cancellation in the prime ministry’ decision, weren’t fake. The decision showed the card could not be canceled arbitrarily by the adviser or press spokesman of the Prime Ministry.
Milliyet reporter Abdullah Karakuş applied to the court to annul the decision, arguing the decision was a kind of censorship.
In its decision, the court said the cancellation was not in line with the freedom of press and the laws. Such an implementation was also likely to create a deterrent effect on the reporters’ behest of producing news. The decision said Karakuş’s news did not harm the principles of journalism.
Referring to the respective items of the European Convention on Human Rights, or ECHR, the court said: "Making the journalist prove the value judgments and convictions is not possible. If the journalist is expected to prove his news based on phenomenon then his good will defense should be deemed sufficient."
"If the journalist has enough reasons to believe that a certain type of information is correct then they shouldn’t be punished. Instead of proving the reality, the journalist should be expected to perform research to a reasonable extent."
Meanwhile, Ankara representative of daily Milliyet Fikret Bila said in his column yesterday that the court’s decision should be taken as a lesson and that the Prime Ministry should give the press accreditation card back to Karakuş. The court decision required this. He said Karakuş’s news reports, which were shown as the reasons for cancellation in the prime ministry’ decision, weren’t fake. The decision showed the card could not be canceled arbitrarily by the adviser or press spokesman of the Prime Ministry.