Journalist probed for 'insulting' Turkish president

ISTANBUL

An investigation has been launched into veteran journalist Hasan Cemal over his recent article titled “The Sultan in the Palace is culpable for the bloodshed,” Cemal has told daily Hürriyet.
Cemal was summoned to testify on Sept. 17 and the probe was launched purportedly on the charge of “insulting the Turkish president” in his article published on news website T24 on Aug. 12.

“We as journalists have been through hard times thus far with juntas, military coups, state of emergency, martial law. But, what hurts at this point is this was the first lawsuit filed against me since March 12,” Cemal said, recalling Turkey’s second military coup on March 12, 1971, which is known as the “coup by memorandum.”

Cemal was born in 1944 in Istanbul and is currently a columnist for T24.

He graduated from the Ankara University Political Sciences School in 1965 and started his career in journalism in weekly magazine Devrim in Ankara.

Among dailies he worked for were Yeni Ortam, Anka Ajansı and Günaydın.

In 1973, he started a column in daily Cumhuriyet and became its Ankara Bureau Chief in 1979, two years before he assumed the role of editor-in-chief of the popular daily.

Most recently, Cemal had worked at daily Milliyet for 15 years, but he was sorted out for his articles in 2013.