Turkish man becomes latest sentenced for insulting President Erdogan

SBS World News Radio: A Turkish man has been found guilty of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for depicting him as the Gollum character from The Lord of the Rings.

Turkish man becomes latest sentenced for insulting President ErdoganTurkish man becomes latest sentenced for insulting President Erdogan

Turkish man becomes latest sentenced for insulting President Erdogan

A Turkish court gave Rifat Cetin a suspended one-year jail sentence and stripped him of parental custody rights.

The charges are just another in a long line of almost 2,000 cases involving insults to President Erdogan.

They include a former beauty queen and a 13-year-old boy.

In Turkey, little doubt can be left as to who is in charge.

Since Recep Tayyip Erdogan became president two years ago, more than 1,800 cases of insults to the president have been opened.

The latest outcome is a Turkish man found guilty of insulting Mr Erdogan for depicting him as Gollum, from The Lord of the Rings.

A court in south-western Antalya province gave Rifat Cetin a suspended one-year jail sentence and stripped him of parental custody rights.

Mr Cetin has insisted his images, comparing the Turkish leader with the character in 2014, were harmless.

In a similar case, 47-year-old doctor Bilgin Ciftic is being tried for sharing images comparing the President to the same character on social media.

Despite a decision not yet being made, Mr Ciftic was sacked from his hospital and subsequently detained for sharing the images.

Turkey's record on freedom of speech and treatment of journalists and the public has faced sharp criticism, with Mr Erdogan's administration seen as increasingly intolerant.

Journalist Cengiz Candar, being sued for insulting the President in newspaper columns, has told the BBC his comments are simply critical of the government line.

"He has very strong, autocratic tendencies... authoritarian tendencies. He wants to monopolise power in his hands. For that, he does not want any sort of a tarnished image. But not to have such a image, he needs not to be criticised at all, so he wants to be untouchable."

The President's supporters say criticism and insult are different and, under Turkish law, insulting the head of state is a crime.

Mr Erdogan reiterated those comments when he spoke to CNN last month.

"I must put in very frank terms. We shouldn't confuse criticism with insult and defamation. I am, and my people are, open to criticism. I am an open politican, and I'm an open leader."

However, his opponents say freedom of expression has been muzzled.

Just this week, two Turkish journalists and a human-rights campaigner were arrested over charges of disseminating alleged "terrorist propaganda."

The trio, one from Reporters Without Borders, participated in a solidarity campaign backing the pro-Kurdish publication Ozgur Gundem, which faces multiple investigations and lawsuits.

The newspaper's editor, Gunay Aksoy, says press freedom has regressed and society has become isolated.

"The international community should definitely see the level that media freedom and human rights have regressed to, and they should draw attention to this situation. What the journalists don't see and lawmakers cannot say in the parliament -- because, unfortunately, we no longer have a parliament (that functions) -- is everything depends on the words that come out of President Erdogan's mouth. The society is completely isolated. Turkish society and democratic powers in this country are isolated. We can perhaps break this isolation with pressure and solidarity messages that will come from the world."

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrests, calling them an unbelievable low for press freedom in Turkey.

The wife of one of the arrested journalists, Ahmet Nesin, says her husband was perceived as a terrorist.

"My husband is in jail just because he was defending people's right to be informed. He is in jail only for standing in solidarity with his colleagues. However, he was perceived as a terrorist. I know only one terrorist in this country, and it is obvious who he is. There aren't any other terrorists here."

The daughter of arrested human rights activist Sebnem Korur Financi had told press-freedom protesters the arrests are the beginning of the end.

"We want this terrifying and absurd period to end with the arrest of my mother. Because this is now a new beginning. As my mother stated to the court yesterday, with the arrest of these three people, we came to the beginning of an end. Water is boiling. What will happen next is up to us."

In recent months, a 13 year-old boy and a former Miss Turkey were both briefly detained on charges of insulting President Erdogan on social media.

The 27 year-old former Miss Turkey was given a 14-month suspended prison sentence for sharing a satirical poem on her Instagram account.

And anti-terrorism teams raided young teenager's home, claiming the boy insulted Mr Erdogan in a Facebook post.

The offence of insulting the president is punishable by up to four years in prison.

 






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