Turkiye: Bianet’s Ayça Söylemez Acquitted of “Targeting Counter-Terrorism Official”
Ex-judge had sought prison sentence for Söylemez’s reporting on his trials.
Location: Turkey, Istanbul
Date: July 27, 2023Update: March 19, 2024
Women Press Freedom welcomes the acquittal of Ayça Söylemez who faced three years imprisonment for an article on a former judge and current deputy justice minister. The state and public officials often use nuisance lawsuits and serious terror-related charges to silence critical journalists. In 2023, Women Press Freedom documentation shows that Tukiye is the top country for legal harassment cases targeting women journalists. This persistent and systemic tactic to intimidate the press must stop. We call for all bogus charges leveled against journalists in Turkiye to be dismissed.
On March 19, 2024, at the Istanbul 29th High Criminal Court, journalist Ayça Söylemez was acquitted of charges stemming from an article published in 2020. The journalist was being prosecuted under Article 6/1 of the Anti-Terror Law for allegedly designating counterterrorism officials as targets for terrorist organizations. The court ruled that the legal elements of the crime were not met.
The charges against Söylemez — the human rights editor for Bianet — were filed following a complaint by Akın Gürlek, the deputy justice minister and former judge known for his controversial rulings against journalists and politicians.
On July 27, 2023, an Istanbul court accepted an indictment seeking a prison sentence of up to three years for Söylemez.
The charges stemmed from an article Söylemez wrote for the BirGün daily in February 2020, titled Yetenekli hakim bey (The Talented Judge), which mentioned Gürlek, who was the chief judge of the high criminal court in İstanbul at the time
Gürlek has been involved in numerous high-profile cases, including the sentencing of Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtaş to over four years in prison and the trials of journalist Canan Coşkun and Sözcü columnist Çiğdem Toker.
After Gürlek lodged a complaint, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into Söylemez regarding her article. On June 22, Söylemez provided a statement at police headquarters.
In 2023, Söylemez emphasized during her testimony that Gürlek was a well-known public figure due to the cases he had presided over, making his name newsworthy. She clarified that her article did not mention the name of any illegal organization.
"I wrote about the cases [Gürlek] handled and the verdicts given in those cases, which are already publicly available information. Therefore, it cannot be said that I made Akın Gürlek a target of any organization."
Söylemez also stated that her column article was written solely within her role as a journalist, aiming to inform the public and exercising her rights to press freedom and freedom of expression.
Journalists in Turkey frequently face threats, physical attacks, and legal harassment due to their work. According to Women Press Freedom research, Turkey has the highest number of legal harassment violations against women journalists worldwide in 2023.
The country has a poor record on freedom of the press, with the Turkish government being accused by rights groups of trying to control the media by imprisoning journalists, shutting down media outlets, facilitating the acquisition of media brands by pro-government conglomerates, and exerting financial pressure through regulatory authorities.
Women Press Freedom welcomes Ayça Söylemez’s acquittal. The prosecutor's efforts to seek a one-to-three-year prison sentence for a journalist were obscene. While we are relieved the court ruled in her favor —— ending this legal saga and allowing the reporter to return to her work —— we condemn the Turkish state and its institutions for continuing to disregard press freedom with their repeated legal harassment of journalists. We call for an end to nuisance cases targeting journalists for their reporting.
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