Journalist Keneş Barred From Travel Abroad In Erdoğan 'Insult' Case

An İstanbul court on Thursday rejected a prosecutor’s request to imprison Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Bülent Keneş on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The court instead placed him under judicial supervision and banned him from leaving the country.
The prosecutor sent Keneş to court for arrest after receiving his defense statement on Thursday as part of a criminal investigation that was launched into a series of tweets he claimed insulted the president.
In his statement to the prosecutor, Keneş denied that he insulted Erdoğan in the tweets in question, adding that he exercised his right to free speech to express critical opinion.
“Lets hope for the best. The law in the country has hit rock bottom... Despotism at full speed!” Keneş wrote on his Twitter account following the prosecutor’s decision to seek his arrest.
Also, on the same day, Keneş was called to testify in relation to another investigation on charges of insulting interim Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.
After the cyber crimes unit at the İstanbul Police Department began a technical examination into Keneş’s critical tweets about Davutoğlu in 2014, another investigation was recently launched against Keneş on charges of insulting the prime minister and he was called to testify to the Security General Directorate (EGM) of the İstanbul Police Department.
There are nine criminal complaints, two lawsuits for damages and six investigations targeting Keneş on accusations of insulting Erdoğan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Erdoğan's adviser Mustafa Varank.
In June, an Ankara penal court of peace sentenced Keneş to a 21-month suspended sentence after convicting him of insulting Erdoğan in a tweet that Keneş sent in July of last year. That prison sentence will be implemented if Keneş commits the same crime in the next five years.
In his defense, Keneş then emphasized that he was simply engaging in journalism and that there was no indication in his tweet that he was actually referring to Erdoğan.
Keneş is one of many journalists in Turkey facing prosecution and possible jail terms on charges of insulting Erdoğan as media freedom keeps deteriorating amid growing pressure and intimidation of the media which culminated into an assault on a Hürriyet daily columnist early this month in front of his house in İstanbul.
Erdoğan, who first served as prime minister and is currently president, is increasingly intolerant of media criticism about the interim Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government's alleged malpractice and his alleged violation of the Constitution by disregarding the principle of impartiality by favoring the AK Party.
Rights groups and media organizations express concern over the growing pressure on media organizations while critics say it is an attempt to silence critics ahead of the Nov. 1 parliamentary election.
Keneş vows to keep speaking up after court refuses to arrest him
Speaking to reporters while leaving the courthouse, Keneş said he will continue to speak up against unlawfulness in the country. “They may want to silence me but if you do not want to keep silent they cannot. I will continue to oppose turning this country into an open-air prison and an unlawful, oppressive and arbitrary administration,” Keneş said.
Explaining the deteriorating situation of media freedom in Turkey, Keneş recalled that critical TV channels are being banned and that more and more academics, journalists and intellectuals are facing politically-motivated probes in the country.
“Due to this terrible situation in Turkey and the principle of rule of law is now crushed, people are now waiting for their turns [to be prosecuted]. I had also been waiting for my turn. To be honest, I am surprised that this attempt to arrest me was belated. I had been waiting for three years,” he added. (Cihan/Today’s Zaman)