"Gülen Subjected to Unfair and Factitious Allegations"
There has been much debate about journalist Hasan Cemal's book concerning the internal fight within Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet.
The paper has followed a policy of targeting Fethullah Gülen instead of responding to the allegations of Mr. Cemal.
"My client has been subjected to unfair and factitious allegations about an issue that does not concern him in the least," said Gülen's lawyer Orhan Erdemli in his statement Wednesday.
Last week, news reports as well as commentaries in Turkish newspapers and magazines over the book entitled "How I Love 'Cumhuriyet'!" set the agenda; that Cumhuriyet targets certain circles and names, and that is deemed to be a deliberate attempt to mislead and to roll back frontiers. It would be against press ethics to create the impression that Mr. Gülen is a party to those debates, said Mr. Erdemli, calling for an end to directing criticisms towards Mr. Gülen, alongside his emphasis on the correct procedures of debate.
Mr. Gülen would accept any criticisms as a manifest of freedom of expression unless they are intended to be an insult, said Mr. Erdemli.
In connection with a journalist who objected to Cemal's book, Mr. Erdemli said: "The case has been withdrawn that was brought against the journalist working for Cumhuriyet who wrote a defaming article about my client which violates the standards of fairness, presuming that he was sincere in saying, 'My aim was not to insult but to criticize'".
"If a frontier is to be a matter of discussion, the actual frontier is composed of those who, including some Cumhuriyet writers, have been maintaining a systematical campaign of belittling Mr. Gülen over the past years. Civil jurisdiction has proven that the campaign at hand is against press ethics as well as the law", concluded Mr. Erdemli, regarding speculations that there is a group of people forming a frontier against Cumhuriyet.
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