Turkish journalist sued for insulting Erdogan
A Turkish court has launched a probe into allegations that Tolga Tanış, a US-based journalist, has slandered and insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his new book.
Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office started the probe at the request of Ahmet Özel, a lawyer for Erdogan, English-language Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman reported on Saturday.
Tanış’s book, named “POTUS ve Beyefendi” (POTUS and the Gentleman), contains “false information that could harm the reputation of and provoke the public against” Erdogan, his lawyer said.
POTUS is an acronym for President of the US, Barack Obama, while Beyefendi, meaning gentleman, was a common word that Erdogan’s supporters used to define him when he was prime minister.
The book focuses on the relations between the US and Turkey between 2009, when Obama came to power, and 2014, when Erdogan was elected as president.
Tanış, an esteemed journalist working as a Washington correspondent and foreign policy columnist for Hurriyet daily, has been summoned to testify about the accusations of insult and libel. He is reportedly due to testify in Istanbul in the coming days.
Tanış is the latest in a chain of figures prosecuted for insulting Erdogan. So far, a number of journalists, activists, intellectuals, students and even celebrities have faced similar charges.
Earlier this month, Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Bülent Keneş was handed down a suspended jail term of 21 months by a court in the capital, Ankara, for insulting Erdogan in a message posted on Twitter.
Following the verdict, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the Turkish president “to recognize that public office comes with public criticism, and to stop harassing journalists with legal action.”
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