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A report on the web portal of the Yenicağ newspaper with the title "Male belly dancer in entertainment organized by AKP Women Branches" became the subject of a suit for damage, with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suing the newspaper with a compensation claim of 100,000 lira (~5,300 dollars).
In the petition of the case opened by Muammer Cemaloğlu and Burhanettin Sevencan, lawyers of AKP, it was argued that the report was "an attack on personal rights and the reputation of the party." The petition also argued that the newspaper published fake news in this event.
The lawyers claimed that the report was published for the purpose of ruining the reputation of AKP before the society in their petition.
They said, "It is clear that this fake news is prepared in bad faith targeting our client party and its women branches. A similar statement has been made by the Ordu Women Branch of the party and announced to the public. It was indicated in this statement that the related images are not from the meeting of the women's branches and it was explained that the report in question is fake news and that it is slander."
The lawyers have also indicated that the report of the newspaper could not be evaluated in the scope of freedom of expression or freedom of the press.
Giving examples from rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court and also the Court of Cassation opinions, lawyers said, "The expressions used by the defendant are not in any way within the limits of freedom of information, freedom of expression or freedom of thought, they are clearly an attack on personal rights and they necessitate immaterial compensation to be paid."
The petition further argued that the moral values of the party clearly suffered damage, considering the political standpoint of the party and its position within the society, and requested that the defendant newspaper should be sentenced to paying 100 thousand lira of immaterial compensation for attacking personal rights and reputation of the party.
teyit.org confirmed: Newspaper report is wrongAccording to teyit.org, a fact-checking platform that checked on Yeniçağ's report, the report is wrong. The video is from a women's entertainment organized by a cosmetics company in Fatsa, Ordu on November 5. The organization company that teyit.org talked to said that the event was not related to AKP or any other political party. Nor does the name of any political party appear in the invitations. Serdem Erol who took the stage at the event posted a message on his social media account and said that the event was not related to any political party. Tickets and detailed information about the women's event are posted in social media accounts. |
What happened?
Yeniçağ published a report in its internet news portal together with a video which had titled "Male belly dancer in entertainment organized by AKP Women Branches" on November 15.
The report was about a male belly dancer dancing in entertainment organized by AKP Ordu Women Branch on November 5 which it criticized.
AKP Ordu Women's Branch issued a statement and said that the report was unreal and that it was slander. The statement said that no such event was organized by the AKP Women branch and that they had learned that such entertainment was organized by a private company in the Fatsa district.
Yeniçağ published another report following this and said that the images were taken from the social media accounts of Merve Acerbaş who is the chair of the AKP Korgan Women Branch and shared screenshots of the post. (HA/PE)
