Doğan Holding Honorary Chairman awarded compensation from insulting journalist

A court in the southern province of Adana yesterday gave a local journalist a punitive fine and ruled for him to pay compensation to Aydın Doğan, the honorary chairman of Doğan Holding, on insult charges.

Ersin Ramoğlu, a columnist for a mainstream daily's Adana regional supplement, was ruled to have used insulting sentences and directed baseless accusations against Doğan in columns published between Sept. 21, 2015 and Nov. 3, 2015.

A lawsuit was filed at the Adana 2nd criminal court of peace against Ramoğlu on charges of "insult through a voiced, written or video message." 

Ramoğlu denied the charges, claiming that his columns were within the scope of press freedom and the limits of criticism. The court handed him a 109-day punitive fine, stating that "the limits of criticism had been exceeded and there was no public interest in the writings."

It also ruled against the deferment of the announcement of the verdict based on the fact that Ramoğlu had previously been sentenced for the same charge multiple times and there was no opinion that he would not commit the crime again. The Adana 7th criminal court of peace ordered in a separate case Ramoğlu to pay a total of 13,000 Turkish Liras in compensation for three columns that he penned.