Journalists Face Prison For Reporting Nationwide Eavesdropping

A lawsuit has been filed against journalists Gökçer Tahincioğlu and Kemal Göktaş for making a story about Ankara’s 11th High Criminal Court’s giving permission to the Police Department, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the Gendarmerie Head Quarters to monitor others.

After Ankara Public Prosecutor Hüseyin Görüşen’s investigation under article 6/1 of the Anti-Terror Law regarding “targeting the public officials who are part of the anti-terror activities”, the Office of Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor has demanded punishment of the two journalists.

The crime of the journalists is getting their hands on classified information

The indictment prepared by the Office of Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor claims that the court orders that granted the Police Department and the MİT a general authority to monitor others were classified. Therefore, the journalists were guilty of reporting classified information. Furthermore, giving the name of the judge responsible for the court orders meant the journalists had also committed the crime of “making the judge target of the terrorist organization.”

Three year prison sentence for discovering the “tele-ear”

The indictment is asking for three-year prison sentence for each journalist for securing “classified information” and “publishing this information.”

The 9th Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals had ruled against a similar general monitoring permission granted to the Gendarmerie Head Quarters in a previous case, stating that general monitoring without specifying person’s name and telephone number was against the law.

They had received the Media Freedom Award from the TGC

Tahincioğlu and Göktaş had received the Media Freedom Award for this story from the Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) on the Traditional Journalists Day of July 24.  

On the day the story was published, Göktaş had told bianet that they had applied the utmost sensitivity in this case, not printed any photographs and not turned anyone into a target. The story had appeared in the newspaper Vatan on July 1, 2008 under the title “Türkiye’yi Sarsacak Belge” (The Document That Will Shake Turkey) and stated that Ankara’s 11th High Criminal Court had approved the application  by the Office of the Public Chief Prosecutor regarding granting permission to the Police Department for securing the documents of all the telephone firms in Turkey.

Tahincioğlu had made a story named “İzleme İtirazı” (Objection About Monitoring) in daily Milliyet on June 2, 2008. (EÖ/EÜ/TB)