EYLEM SONBAHAR
Furkan Karabay from Gerçek Gündem, who was detained and arrested for reporting on the trial transcript containing bribery statements in the judiciary, said, "If there is a crime, it is not mine"
Gerçek Gündem Editor Furkan Karabay was detained one day later for a news report published on December 27, 2023, on the court minutes of the bribery case: “The police picked him up from wherever they left him, if I talk about it, the bazaar will be in turmoil”, was detained a day later. Karabay, who was not allowed to meet with his lawyers for a while, was brought to the prosecutor's office at Çağlayan Courthouse today (November 29) after his statement at the Istanbul Security Directorate. During his interrogation at the Istanbul 7th Criminal Magistrate Judgeship, to which he was referred after his statement at the prosecutor's office, Karabay denied the accusation, saying that he had reported what was written in the minutes of the hearing. Stating that he did not distort the information in the minutes, which is accessible to everyone, Karabay continued as follows: "If there is a crime, it does not belong to me, I don't know what kind of a trial this will be, but I have no comment. Everything is recorded in the minutes of the hearing and in the record. I am not guilty."
"He reported the trial as part of his journalistic activity"
Lawyer Enes Hikmet Ermaner said, "In the content of the news article, İsmail Uçar's petition was mentioned at first, and then the allegations put forward by the defendant Barış Saral in the hearing minutes of the Istanbul 10th High Criminal Court dated November 29, 2023 were completely quoted without any comment. If these allegations constitute a crime here, the people who make these allegations and those who record these allegations in the court minutes have committed this crime. As part of his journalistic activity, the defendant published the minutes of the hearing he had in his possession, considering the public interest and acting in accordance with the law in the style of the news. Although it is claimed by the prosecutor's office that there is a comment by the defendant at the end of the news article, the relevant sentence is again Barış Saral's statements in the news article."
Continuing, lawyer Ermaner said about Karabay's post on Platform X, which was added to the investigation later, "The tweet about Murat Bircan, one of the judges of the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court, who did not comply with the Constitutional Court ruling against Can Atalay, has been shared by many journalists before, and the fact that this post was shared does not constitute a crime. In the prosecutor's referral, it was claimed that the client had targeted people who had taken part in the fight against terrorism and demanded his arrest. However, it is not concretely stated who and how the client targeted which terrorist organization. The client has no suspicion of fleeing, we demand his immediate release."
"Are we going to learn how to report news from the prosecutor like in journalism school?"
Lawyer Serkan Günel stated that journalist Karabay reported the events on the agenda without commenting on them and said, "What they want to do is to sacrifice a person in order to prevent this type of news. Are we going to learn from the prosecutor how to report news like in journalism school? Which terrorist organization did he target and what? The video of the person the client reported on during the trial was published on social media and there is not even a publication ban on it. He did not even retweet this video. There is a shadow over the judiciary and this cannot be prevented by arresting journalists."
Announcing its decision, the court ruled for the arrest of journalist Karabay because there is concrete evidence indicating the existence of strong criminal suspicion that he committed the crime of "targeting people who took part in the fight against terrorism" and that judicial control would be insufficient.
