Vienna, 30/12/2015
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) was dismayed by new details regarding the recent lawsuit against Hurriyet daily Editor-in-Chief Sedat Ergin.
Ergin was charged with insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan through alleged offensive and false reports by incorrectly paraphrasing Erdogan in the daily’s reports on an attack on 6 September. In the attack, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed 16 Turkish soldiers during a confrontation in Daglica, near the Iraqi border.
The prosecution demanded five years and four months in jail for Sedat Ergin. His lawsuit has been merged with that of Ekrem Dumanli, former editor-in-chief of Zaman daily, which paraphrased the same speech of the President.
“We are deeply concerned regarding these allegations and charges”, SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic stated.
SEEMO is a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South East and Central Europe. SEEMO’s press freedom work is supported by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) project, as part of a grant by the European Commission.