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Judicial Package Authorizes Seizure Of Dissenting Media Outlets

18.12.2014 19:07

The government has given the authorities the power to seize dissenting media outlets with a recently passed judicial package that makes possible the confiscation of private property on such charges as attempting to undermine the constitutional order or committing a crime against the government. “[This package] has set the stage for the seizure of anybody's real estate assets [by the government],” Levent Gök, parliamentary group deputy chairman of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), told reporters on Wednesday. The CHP appealed the same day to the Constitutional Court for a stay and cancellation of eight of the articles in the judicial package, including one that extended the scope of cases in which the judiciary is authorized to permit the seizure of private property. Before, the seizure of private property was only permitted by the legislation in cases where an armed terrorist organization was in question. Right after the amendments introduced by the package went into

The government has given the authorities the power to seize dissenting media outlets with a recently passed judicial package that makes possible the confiscation of private property on such charges as attempting to undermine the constitutional order or committing a crime against the government.

“[This package] has set the stage for the seizure of anybody's real estate assets [by the government],” Levent Gök, parliamentary group deputy chairman of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), told reporters on Wednesday.

The CHP appealed the same day to the Constitutional Court for a stay and cancellation of eight of the articles in the judicial package, including one that extended the scope of cases in which the judiciary is authorized to permit the seizure of private property. Before, the seizure of private property was only permitted by the legislation in cases where an armed terrorist organization was in question.

Right after the amendments introduced by the package went into effect last Friday, the police took into custody, based on “reasonable suspicion,” which is a criterion also introduced by the package, the top managers of two of Turkey's leading media outlets.

Ekrem Dumanlı, editor-in-chief of Turkey's best-selling daily Zaman, and Samanyolu Broadcasting Group General Manager Hidayet Karaca were taken into custody last Sunday as part of a government-orchestrated police operation against the faith-based Hizmet movement.

A columnist for the pro-government Yeni Şafak newspaper, Cem Küçük, recently signaled that the government may seek to seize the Zaman daily and the Samanyolu Broadcasting Group.

Describing the Hizmet movement, inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, as a criminal organization, Küçük said in his column on Tuesday: “In the same way al-Qaeda cannot [be allowed to] have TV channels and dailies, this parallel crime organization cannot possess television channels and dailies.”

Both the Zaman daily and the Samanyolu Broadcasting Group are affiliated with the Hizmet movement.

The government, hard-pressed by widespread allegations of corruption, may be planning to seize media outlets that have given the government a hard time by keeping sweeping claims of corruption on the country's agenda.

Turgut Kazan, a lawyer, also expressed concern, during a program on CNN Türk, that the government may attempt to seize the media outlets whose top figures were detained as part of the operation against the media.

Noting that the managers of the Zaman daily and Samanyolu Broadcasting Group were detained right after amendments that expanded the scope for the seizure of private property, Kazan said during the program on Monday night, “You [the government] may have also planned to seize those places [media outlets].”

Harshly criticizing the detainment of media members in the government-orchestrated operation, Kazan, who is a former head of the İstanbul Bar Association, added, “What is being done is a coup on freedom of the media.”

The deputy chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Semih Yalçın, blasted the package for doing away with the rule of law.

“Now 77 million people in this country are reasonable suspects. Turning the whole of the populace into reasonable suspects, when the real suspect is sitting in his palace, is an anti-democratic act,” Yalçın said at a press conference.

With the new law, the police will be able to conduct searches of individuals, households or workplaces merely based on "reasonable suspicion" instead of concrete evidence, as was the law in the past. The law also restricts the rights of lawyers to examine investigation case-files about their clients. In addition, judges will be able to seize the property of individuals based on "reasonable suspicion."

Following two graft probes that went public in December of last year, four government ministers had to resign from their posts. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and some of his family members were also allegedly involved in corruption.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
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