Jurists Call Broadcasting Ban on Taraf Story Illegal
Jurists have described as unlawful a military court's decision to impose a ban on media coverage of the Taraf daily's headline story on Friday, which exposed plans by the General Staff to discredit the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Gülen movement.
On Friday the Taraf daily published documents that contain plans made by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to launch a smear campaign against the governing AK Party and the Gülen movement, which is led by respected Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. The General Staff did not issue a comprehensive statement on the controversial documents, settling instead for announcing that an investigation has been launched into the issue by the military prosecutor's office. A media ban on the coverage of Taraf's story was imposed later in the day on the grounds that it was necessary to protect public order.
Reşat Petek, a former chief prosecutor, described the military court's decision to impose a media ban on the coverage of the Taraf story as “scandalous,” noting that the ban was against the law. “In its ruling, the military court says the media ban was imposed on the content of the Taraf story. The Taraf daily already published this story. The court says the media ban was placed for the protection of public order. There is nothing regarding this issue that threatens public order. It is illegal to impose a media ban on a document that was already published,” said Petek.
He also said the TSK's investigation into the documents should not focus on the people who leaked these documents to the press but should aim to reveal and punish the people who prepared this illegal action plan. “It is unthinkable for a chief of general staff who says he is respectful toward law and democracy to work for the same institution as the people who prepared these documents. If the chief of general staff fails to cast light on these documents, the government should take the necessary action,” added Petek.
Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arinç, also a jurist, voiced his reaction to the military court's media ban on the Taraf story. Speaking with the Anatolia news agency on Saturday, Arinç said it was controversial for the military court to issue such a ruling because only civilian courts have the authority to place media bans.
“Over the publication of such news, civilian courts have the authority to impose media bans either through their own decision or after a request from a prosecutor. There is only one example when a military court imposed such a ban, and it was after stories were published about a deadly terrorist attack against the Aktütün military post in eastern Turkey last year,” Arinç explained.
Considering the fact that the documents published by the Taraf daily were discovered as part of an ongoing investigation into Ergenekon, a shadowy crime network that has alleged links within the state, whose trial is under way in a civilian court, Arinç said a media ban could have been placed by the civilian court hearing the Ergenekon case, not by a military court.
In the meantime, Taraf announced yesterday that it would apply to a court over the military court's imposition of a media ban on news coverage related to the TSK action plan. “The General Staff did the right thing by launching an investigation into the documents published by Taraf, but this investigation should be conducted with full transparency,” the daily said. Taraf noted that the public had the right to be informed about the course of this investigation, making the ban unjust.
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