Turkey: CFWIJ Welcomes The Court of Appeal Overturn Of The Prison Sentence Against Journalist Ayşegül Doğan
Location: Turkey, Diyarbakır
Date: April 5, 2022Available in: 🇹🇷 Türkçe
The appeal court overturned the six years and three months prison sentence given to journalist Ayşegül Doğan for “being affiliated with a terrorist organization”. The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) welcomes the court's decision. The court decision also sets a precedent for other prosecutions against journalists.
The trial against Ayşegül Doğan, host of the Gündem Müzakere program on the now shutdown IMC TV news channel was tried on the grounds of meetings, interviews, and activities she participated as a journalist with the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) executives, a union of pro-Kurdish civil society organizations. On December 7, 2020, Ayşegül was sentenced to six years and three months in prison.
Diyarbakır Regional Court of Justice's 2nd Criminal Chamber cited "incomplete research and the establishment of a sentence on grounds that do not comply with the scope of the file" as the justification for the sentence.
According to the Mezopotamya Agency (MA), the court ruled Ayşegül’s participation in DTK meetings as a speaker and her journalistic activities should not be considered stand-alone evidence or organizational activity in terms of the crime against the journalist.
The Court of Appeal emphasized that the decision was reached without investigations or prosecution by the security forces regarding the activities that the journalist allegedly attended. The court also ruled that the defendant's participation in other criminal acts, statements or any documents were never being asked in the necessity of the court. Witnesses were never being heard if needed. These dynamics of the prosecution processes were found "illegal" and decided to quash the prison sentence for the journalist.
The appeal court, which sent the case file to the local court for re-examination, decided that the foreign travel ban imposed on the journalist should continue.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism welcomes the decision. The reversal of the court's decision against Ayşegül Doğan proves that journalistic activities do not constitute a crime. We demand that a similar decision be made to other journalists.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.
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