Turkish PM wins two cases against journalists

ISTANBUL/ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Ahmet Altan was fined to 7,000 Turkish Liras. Hürriyet Photo

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won two separate court cases against journalists, Bekir Coskun and Ahmet Altan, who were fined to 5,000 and 7,000 Turkish Liras respectively.

An Istanbul court decided that Altan, former editor-in-chief of daily Taraf, exceeded the limits of criticism and insulted the prime minister in one of his columns in daily Taraf, sentencing him to one year and two months in jail. The court turned the sentence into pecuniary fine due to good conduct.

Altan’s column was about the Uludere incident, in which 34 smugglers were mistaken for terrorists and killed at the border with Iraq by a Turkish air force strike.

Meanwhile, an Ankara court decided journalist Coşkun and daily Cumhuriyet newspaper should pay 5,000 liras to Erdoğan for a column written by Coşkun.

Erdoğan’s lawyer has demanded 10,000 liras in compensation, claiming that Coşkun’s column, titled “The big state thing…” published on Sept. 20, 2012, “attacked Erdoğan’s personal rights.”