The new Turkey Fatih Polat. Chief editor of the daily newspaper Evrensel
06-Jan-2020 17:03
14 November 2019: Fatih Polat acquitted of “insulting the president” The fourth and final hearing in the trial of Fatih Polat, the editor-in-chief of Evrensel daily, on the charge of “insulting the president” took place on 14 November 2019 at the Bakırköy 31st Criminal Court of First Instance. The lawyers representing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had filed a complaint against Polat after his article “Erdoğan ailesiyle ilgili bu iddialara muhatapları ne diyor?” (What do those addressed say about these allegations concerning the Erdoğan family?), published on 28 May 2017 in Evrensel, was already removed from the website upon the order of an Istanbul court. P24 monitored the hearing, which began 23 minutes later than scheduled due to the late arrival of Erdoğan’s lawyer Gökhan Yılmaz. Fatih Polat was in attendance with his lawyers Devrim Avcı and Mustafa Söğütlü. The presiding judge Aysel Sevcan informed those in attendance that Erdoğan’s lawyer had filed an objection against the expert opinion concerning Polat, submitted to the court by the London-based freedom of expression organization Article 19. Reiterating his objection, Yılmaz asked the court to sentence Polat. Speaking next, Polat’s lawyer Avcı reminded the court that the original news report published on the website theblacksea.eu, by Craig Shaw, which was the article referred to in Polat’s column, was still accessible online. Avcı said that while a news report such as Craig Shaw’s was found worthy of an award elshere in the world, in Turkey punishment was sought over it. Reminding that case-law by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Supreme Court of Appeals held that political figures must tolerate harsh criticism, Avcı said that being a political figure, the President, who also the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) chairman, was not immune from such criticism. She said, “The news story in question is within the scope of freedom of expression. It is lawful and does not cross the line of reporting.” She asked the court to acquit her client. Asked for his final words, Polat said that his final defense statement would be about journalism and he went on to recount an episode that took place a day before the hearing was held at the meeting between Erdoğan and Trump. After responding to questions from journalists, Trump had asked if there were any Turkish journalists to ask questions to Erdoğan. “This was an embarrassing scene,” Polat said. Then Erdoğan’s lawyer interfered and asked “What has this defense statement have to do with journalism?” upon which the presiding judge warned Yılmaz, reminding the lawyer of Polat’s right to deliver his defense statement. Continuing his statement, Polat said: “It is the job of the journalist to ask questions. If we give up asking questions, we cannot do journalism.” Asserting that he did not commit the alleged crime, Polat asked to be acquitted. Announcing its verdict at the end of the hearing, the court ruled to acquit Polat of “insulting the president” on the grounds that the article was within the scope of the freedom to inform the public as per Article 28 of the Constitution. 17 September 2019: Fatih Polat’s trial on “insult” charge adjourned The trial of journalist Fatih Polat, the editor-in-chief of Evrensel daily, on the charge of “insulting the president” resumed on 17 Septmeber 2019 at Istanbul’s Bakırköy 31st Criminal Court of First Instance. The accusation stems from Polat’s article titled “Erdoğan ailesiyle ilgili bu iddialara muhatapları ne diyor?” (What do those addressed say about these allegations concerning the Erdoğan family?), published in the newspaper on 28 May 2017. P24 monitored the hearing, which was the third hearing in the trial. Polat and his lawyer Devrim Avcı were in attendance. In its interim ruling, the court adjourned the trial until 14 November 2019 for Polat’s written defense statement to be submitted to the court. 7 March 23019: Fatih Polat acquitted in case filed upon former mayor’s complaint On 7 March, Fatih Polat, the editor-in-chief of the daily Evrensel, appeared in the final hearing of a case where he was accused of disclosing the content of communication between persons.” At the end of the hearing, monitored by P24, the 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance of Istanbul acquitted Polat of the charge. The accusation stemmed from a news story published in Evrensel in February 2010 -- when Polat was the responsible managing editor of the daily. The story was about leaked tapes of an alleged phone conversation between former Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek and former AKP MP Burhan Kuzu. 7 February 2019: Fatih Polat appears in court on “insulting the president” charge Evrensel daily’s editor in chief Fatih Polat on 7 February appeared in the first hearing of a case where he is charged with “insulting the president” for his article that was published in the newspaper on 28 May 2017. An Istanbul court had previously ordered the column be removed from the Evrensel website. The newspaper’s lawyers objected to the court order, but their objection was rejected and the article was subsequently removed from the website. After the removal of the article, lawyers representing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan filed a lawsuit against Polat for the column. Polat and his lawyers as well as a lawyer representing the president were in attendance during the hearing at the Bakırköy 31st Criminal Court of First Instance. P24 monitored the hearing, where Polat and his lawyers made their defense statement. Polat submitted to the court a written defense statement, in which he said that he would continue asking questions, which constitutes the essence of journalism. Polat’s lawyer Devrim Avcı Özkurt said the news article Polat referred to in his column was published in at least seven different countries across Europe and that the original news story was still available online, however, one mention of the said article in Turkey has led to a court case against her client. Özkurt said that any article that includes criticism against Erdoğan to face a court case was against the case law of the Constitutional Court of Turkey and the European Court of Human Rights. Polat’s lawyer Gülşah Kaya also told the court that the website that is the source of the news was still open for access and the original news story was in Turkish. Addressing the court following the defense, Erdoğan’s lawyer argued that Polat’s article “violated Erdoğan’s personal rights” and requested that the journalist be punished. The next hearing in the case will be held on 14 May 2019. Source 14 September 2018: Second hearing of "disclosure" case held as well At the İstanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan, the second hearing of the case filed against the newspaper's chief editor Fatih Polat on charge of "openly disclosing the confidentiality of interpersonal communication" was also held by the same court yesterday. A court case was filed against Polat on February 22, 2010 for reporting the voice records which allegedly belong to the then Metropolitan Mayor of Ankara Melih Gökçek and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) Constitutional Committee Chair of the time Burhan Kuzu. In his statement of defense, Polat emphasized that the related news had previously been reported by Akşam newspaper. The court has ruled that the case file shall be sent to an expert on information technologies so that it can be determined whether any news reports regarding the voice records in question had been published on Evrensel before February 22, 2010. The next hearing will be held on December 6, 2018. (AS/SD) 6 September 2018: Fatih Polat given TL 10,000 fine in retrial of 2013 case Evrensel daily’s editor-in-chief Fatih Polat on 6 September was given a TL 10,000 fine in the retrial of a previous case, where the charges stemmed from a news story published in the newspaper in 2012, when Polat was the newspaper’s responsible managing editor. At the end of the initial trial in 2013, the trial court had found Polat guilty of “disclosing the identity of a minor” and sentenced him to a fine of TL 10,000 for the news story, published in May 2012. The court had suspended the judgment. After Polat was convicted in another media trial, the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance decided to review that decision and reassess the specifics of the case in a retrial. Polat did not attend Thursday’s hearing as he made his defense statement during the previous hearing. He was represented by his lawyer Devrim Avcı Özkurt, who reiterated the previous defense statement and requested her client’s acquittal. The court then announced its verdict, once again convicting the journalist and sentencing him to a TL 10,000 fine. 18 October 2017: Terror charges for journalists detained in December ............................The journalists were questioned about different groups recognized as terrorists by Turkey, according to analysis in the daily Evrensel by chief editor Fatih Polat, who followed the case and interviewed defense lawyers. Öğreten's terror allegation was linked to him working for the shuttered daily Taraf before he was at Diken, which prosecutors saidwas a "media organ of the FETÖ." FETÖ, or the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization is the name Turkish authorities gave to the Hizmet Movement, an international organization led by exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen. The prosecutor also accused the journalist of being a member of the extreme leftist group the Revolutionary People's Salvation Party/Front (DHKP/C). Another report in Evrensel said the others were accused of having ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP). The report did not specify which accusations related to which defendant. The journalists denied the charges. Atilla Bahçıvan, a lawyer for Kanaat, told Polat that the evidence was either weak or not criminal under Turkish law. Bahçıvan said, "The case is there just because of the name Berat Albayrak. Nothing would come out [of this case] if it was about something else." 25 October 2016: Newspaper editors acquitted of terrorism charges An Istanbul court today acquitted Fatih Polat and Vural Nasuhbeyoğlu, the editor-in-chief and former responsible news editor of the leftist daily newspaper Evrensel, respectively, at the first hearing of their trial on charges of "spreading propaganda for a [terrorist] organization," and "praising crime and criminals," Evrensel reported. The charges stemmed from a story briefly published on the newspaper's website that reported that PKK militants had taken a police commissioner hostage. The editors removed the story from the website within a few hours after it was published, after they learned it was not true. The story in question did not appear in the print edition of the newspaper. 2 August 2016: Police interrogate newspaper editor Authorities at Istanbul's Aksaray Police Station interrogated Fatih Polat, chief editor of the daily newspaper Evrensel, regarding an ongoing investigation Ankara prosecutors opened against the daily on suspicion of "making targets of civil servants who combat terrorism by revealing their names," under article 6 of Turkey's anti-terrorism law, Evrensel reported. Evrensel journalists Cem Gurbetoğlu and Tamer Arda Erşin published stories after the October 10 bomb attack in Ankara arguing that officials were negligent in failing to prevent the attack. The investigation also includes a similar story by Kemal Göktaş, a journalist from the daily Cumhuriyet, Evrensel reported. Can Dündar, editor of that newspaper, is also scheduled to answer interrogators' questions regarding that story, Evrenselreported.

The new Turkey
Fatih Polat.
Chief editor of the daily newspaper Evrensel

06-Jan-2020 17:03

14 November 2019:

Fatih Polat acquitted of “insulting the president”

The fourth and final hearing in the trial of Fatih Polat, the editor-in-chief of Evrensel daily, on the charge of “insulting the president” took place on 14 November 2019 at the Bakırköy 31st Criminal Court of First Instance.

The lawyers representing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had filed a complaint against Polat after his article “Erdoğan ailesiyle ilgili bu iddialara muhatapları ne diyor?” (What do those addressed say about these allegations concerning the Erdoğan family?), published on 28 May 2017 in Evrensel, was already removed from the website upon the order of an Istanbul court.

P24 monitored the hearing, which began 23 minutes later than scheduled due to the late arrival of Erdoğan’s lawyer Gökhan Yılmaz. Fatih Polat was in attendance with his lawyers Devrim Avcı and Mustafa Söğütlü.

The presiding judge Aysel Sevcan informed those in attendance that Erdoğan’s lawyer had filed an objection against the expert opinion concerning Polat, submitted to the court by the London-based freedom of expression organization Article 19. Reiterating his objection, Yılmaz asked the court to sentence Polat.

Speaking next, Polat’s lawyer Avcı reminded the court that the original news report published on the website theblacksea.eu, by Craig Shaw, which was the article referred to in Polat’s column, was still accessible online. Avcı said that while a news report such as Craig Shaw’s was found worthy of an award elshere in the world, in Turkey punishment was sought over it.

Reminding that case-law by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Supreme Court of Appeals held that political figures must tolerate harsh criticism, Avcı said that being a political figure, the President, who also the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) chairman, was not immune from such criticism. She said, “The news story in question is within the scope of freedom of expression. It is lawful and does not cross the line of reporting.” She asked the court to acquit her client.

Asked for his final words, Polat said that his final defense statement would be about journalism and he went on to recount an episode that took place a day before the hearing was held at the meeting between Erdoğan and Trump. After responding to questions from journalists, Trump had asked if there were any Turkish journalists to ask questions to Erdoğan. “This was an embarrassing scene,” Polat said. Then Erdoğan’s lawyer interfered and asked “What has this defense statement have to do with journalism?” upon which the presiding judge warned Yılmaz, reminding the lawyer of Polat’s right to deliver his defense statement. Continuing his statement, Polat said: “It is the job of the journalist to ask questions. If we give up asking questions, we cannot do journalism.” Asserting that he did not commit the alleged crime, Polat asked to be acquitted.

Announcing its verdict at the end of the hearing, the court ruled to acquit Polat of “insulting the president” on the grounds that the article was within the scope of the freedom to inform the public as per Article 28 of the Constitution.

17 September 2019:

Fatih Polat’s trial on “insult” charge adjourned

The trial of journalist Fatih Polat, the editor-in-chief of Evrensel daily, on the charge of “insulting the president” resumed on 17 Septmeber 2019 at Istanbul’s Bakırköy 31st Criminal Court of First Instance.

The accusation stems from Polat’s article titled “Erdoğan ailesiyle ilgili bu iddialara muhatapları ne diyor?” (What do those addressed say about these allegations concerning the Erdoğan family?), published in the newspaper on 28 May 2017. P24 monitored the hearing, which was the third hearing in the trial. Polat and his lawyer Devrim Avcı were in attendance.

In its interim ruling, the court adjourned the trial until 14 November 2019 for Polat’s written defense statement to be submitted to the court.

7 March 23019:

Fatih Polat acquitted in case filed upon former mayor’s complaint
On 7 March, Fatih Polat, the editor-in-chief of the daily Evrensel, appeared in the final hearing of a case where he was accused of disclosing the content of communication between persons.”
At the end of the hearing, monitored by P24, the 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance of Istanbul acquitted Polat of the charge.

The accusation stemmed from a news story published in Evrensel in February 2010 -- when Polat was the responsible managing editor of the daily. The story was about leaked tapes of an alleged phone conversation between former Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek and former AKP MP Burhan Kuzu.

7 February 2019:

Fatih Polat appears in court on “insulting the president” charge

Evrensel daily’s editor in chief Fatih Polat on 7 February appeared in the first hearing of a case where he is charged with “insulting the president” for his article that was published in the newspaper on 28 May 2017.

An Istanbul court had previously ordered the column be removed from the Evrensel website. The newspaper’s lawyers objected to the court order, but their objection was rejected and the article was subsequently removed from the website. After the removal of the article, lawyers representing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan filed a lawsuit against Polat for the column.

Polat and his lawyers as well as a lawyer representing the president were in attendance during the hearing at the Bakırköy 31st Criminal Court of First Instance. P24 monitored the hearing, where Polat and his lawyers made their defense statement.
Polat submitted to the court a written defense statement, in which he said that he would continue asking questions, which constitutes the essence of journalism.

Polat’s lawyer Devrim Avcı Özkurt said the news article Polat referred to in his column was published in at least seven different countries across Europe and that the original news story was still available online, however, one mention of the said article in Turkey has led to a court case against her client. Özkurt said that any article that includes criticism against Erdoğan to face a court case was against the case law of the Constitutional Court of Turkey and the European Court of Human Rights.

Polat’s lawyer Gülşah Kaya also told the court that the website that is the source of the news was still open for access and the original news story was in Turkish. Addressing the court following the defense, Erdoğan’s lawyer argued that Polat’s article “violated Erdoğan’s personal rights” and requested that the journalist be punished.

The next hearing in the case will be held on 14 May 2019. Source

14 September 2018:

Second hearing of "disclosure" case held as well

At the İstanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan, the second hearing of the case filed against the newspaper's chief editor Fatih Polat on charge of "openly disclosing the confidentiality of interpersonal communication" was also held by the same court yesterday.

A court case was filed against Polat on February 22, 2010 for reporting the voice records which allegedly belong to the then Metropolitan Mayor of Ankara Melih Gökçek and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) Constitutional Committee Chair of the time Burhan Kuzu.

In his statement of defense, Polat emphasized that the related news had previously been reported by Akşam newspaper.

The court has ruled that the case file shall be sent to an expert on information technologies so that it can be determined whether any news reports regarding the voice records in question had been published on Evrensel before February 22, 2010.

The next hearing will be held on December 6, 2018. (AS/SD)

6 September 2018:

Fatih Polat given TL 10,000 fine in retrial of 2013 case

Evrensel daily’s editor-in-chief Fatih Polat on 6 September was given a TL 10,000 fine in the retrial of a previous case, where the charges stemmed from a news story published in the newspaper in 2012, when Polat was the newspaper’s responsible managing editor.

At the end of the initial trial in 2013, the trial court had found Polat guilty of “disclosing the identity of a minor” and sentenced him to a fine of TL 10,000 for the news story, published in May 2012. The court had suspended the judgment. After Polat was convicted in another media trial, the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance decided to review that decision and reassess the specifics of the case in a retrial.

Polat did not attend Thursday’s hearing as he made his defense statement during the previous hearing. He was represented by his lawyer Devrim Avcı Özkurt, who reiterated the previous defense statement and requested her client’s acquittal.

The court then announced its verdict, once again convicting the journalist and sentencing him to a TL 10,000 fine.

18 October 2017:

Terror charges for journalists detained in December

............................The journalists were questioned about different groups recognized as terrorists by Turkey, according to analysis in the daily Evrensel by chief editor Fatih Polat, who followed the case and interviewed defense lawyers. Öğreten's terror allegation was linked to him working for the shuttered daily Taraf before he was at Diken, which prosecutors saidwas a "media organ of the FETÖ." FETÖ, or the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization is the name Turkish authorities gave to the Hizmet Movement, an international organization led by exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen. The prosecutor also accused the journalist of being a member of the extreme leftist group the Revolutionary People's Salvation Party/Front (DHKP/C). Another report in Evrensel said the others were accused of having ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP). The report did not specify which accusations related to which defendant. The journalists denied the charges.

Atilla Bahçıvan, a lawyer for Kanaat, told Polat that the evidence was either weak or not criminal under Turkish law. Bahçıvan said, "The case is there just because of the name Berat Albayrak. Nothing would come out [of this case] if it was about something else."

25 October 2016:

Newspaper editors acquitted of terrorism charges
An Istanbul court today acquitted Fatih Polat and Vural Nasuhbeyoğlu, the editor-in-chief and former responsible news editor of the leftist daily newspaper Evrensel, respectively, at the first hearing of their trial on charges of "spreading propaganda for a [terrorist] organization," and "praising crime and criminals," Evrensel reported.

The charges stemmed from a story briefly published on the newspaper's website that reported that PKK militants had taken a police commissioner hostage. The editors removed the story from the website within a few hours after it was published, after they learned it was not true. The story in question did not appear in the print edition of the newspaper.

2 August 2016:

Police interrogate newspaper editor
Authorities at Istanbul's Aksaray Police Station interrogated Fatih Polat, chief editor of the daily newspaper Evrensel, regarding an ongoing investigation Ankara prosecutors opened against the daily on suspicion of "making targets of civil servants who combat terrorism by revealing their names," under article 6 of Turkey's anti-terrorism law, Evrensel reported. Evrensel journalists Cem Gurbetoğlu and Tamer Arda Erşin published stories after the October 10 bomb attack in Ankara arguing that officials were negligent in failing to prevent the attack.

The investigation also includes a similar story by Kemal Göktaş, a journalist from the daily Cumhuriyet, Evrensel reported. Can Dündar, editor of that newspaper, is also scheduled to answer interrogators' questions regarding that story, Evrenselreported.

The new Turkey Fatih Polat. Chief editor of the daily newspaper Evrensel

Fatih Polat acquitted of “insulting the president”

Second hearing of "disclosure" case held as well

The new Turkey
Fatih Polat.
Chief editor of the daily newspaper Evrensel