Press freedom in Turkey confined to court corridors: Hürriyet editor-in-chief

Freedom of the press in Turkey has been confined to court corridors in 2016, said Sedat Ergin, the editor-in chief of daily Hürriyet, who appeared before an Istanbul court on March 25 on charges of "insulting" the president.

The Bak?rköy Chief Public Prosecutor's Office opened the case after investigating a tweet posted on Hürriyet's Twitter account on Sept. 6, 2015.

The tweet had quoted President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's statement: "If 400 deputies had been gained, then this would not have happened," and linked it to a recent terrorist attack on Turkish military forces in Da?l?ca.

A case was subsequently opened against Ergin and former daily Zaman editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanl?, accusing them both of "distorting the words of [the president]," "staging a perception operation," and "insulting the president." 

Ergin appeared at Istanbul's Bak?rköy district 54th Penal Court of First Instance for the hearing on March 25. In his defense, he stated that "the intention was not to be insulting." 

"[Erdo?an] said if 400 deputies had been gained [by the government], then these events would not have taken place. Because of a terrorist attack that happened at Da?l?ca that day, the Hürriyet website made a broad interpretation and because of the nature of rapidly processing of news story, adequate control was not possible. However, the headline was removed within a short time. Later we issued a statement saying we were sorry for this mistake," he said. 

"Over the 41 years of my professional life, I have never supported a publishing policy [of] insults. It is not an acceptable situation for me to be tried as a defendant for the first time in such a case," Ergin added.

Meanwhile, Dumanl? did not attend the trial, which was...