Top Turkish court rejects rights violation appeal in ‘trash house’ coverage case

Oya Armutçu – ANKARA

Turkey’s Constitutional Court has rejected an appeal filed by a local man from İzmir who argued that his right to preservation of pecuniary and non-pecuniary property was violated when news reports made by media outlets claimed his house was a “trash home” before it was cleaned by municipality teams. 

The court rejected the application of the man, D.Ö., who exhausted all legal avenues to plead not guilty in his complaint that his right to private property and private life was breached. 

In his application, the plaintiff stated that journalists entered his house without permission and that the images depicting his home as a “trash home” were based on false information. The plaintiff also argued during the case’s hearings that his rights to a fair trial were also breached. 

In the court’s decision, it ruled that only municipal workers entered the property and that they were photographed when trash was removed from the house to be put in a garbage truck.       

The decision also noted that the coverage of the incident was within the boundaries of the freedom of press and that it was not against the private rights of the plaintiff. The decision has now also become a precedent for future cases.