Status: October 19, 2021 3:47 p.m.
The European Court of Human Rights has convicted Turkey of violating freedom of expression. The punishment of a man for two Facebook posts about President Erdogan violated the right to freedom of expression.
According to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Turkey is violating the right to freedom of expression with a law to protect the president from criticism. The court asked the country to amend the controversial law and awarded damages to a man who had been jailed for disrespectful Facebook posts about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The case had been brought before the ECHR by Vedat Sorli. In 2017, he was sentenced to 11 months and 20 days in prison for insulting Erdogan with two satirical contributions on the role of Turkey in Syria, according to the Turkish judiciary. In its judgment, the ECHR criticized in particular the underlying Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code, which makes insulting the President a criminal offense.
Legal action in Turkey unsuccessful
In 2014, the plaintiff first published a photo montage on Facebook that showed the Turkish President wearing a dress kissing the then US President Barack Obama. With reference to the war in Syria, this picture said: “Will you register ownership of Syria in my name, my dear husband?”
Two years later, Sorli again published pictures of Erdogan, next to which it read: “May your presidency, your power and your ambitions be buried in the depths of the earth.” Sorli was held in custody for two months and the subsequent sentence was suspended.
The man’s legal action in Turkey was unsuccessful; an appeals court and the Turkish Constitutional Court dismissed appeals against the judgment.
Against the European Convention on Human Rights
The ECHR ruled that the man’s conviction had a “dissuasive effect” on other people who wanted to express criticism. The sentence imposed violates Sorli’s right to freedom of expression. Furthermore, Turkish law violates the spirit of the European Convention on Human Rights, which Turkey ratified in 1954.
Representatives of the state would legitimately have a right to protection; It was precisely because of their power that the institutions had to exercise this right cautiously, the court found. “A state’s interest in protecting the reputation of its head of state cannot serve as a justification for granting the head of state a privileged status or special protection in relation to the right to disseminate information and opinions about him,” according to the ECHR.
The court called on Turkey to adapt its national law. He awarded the plaintiff compensation in the amount of 7,500 euros.