Former Finance Minister Berat Albayrak's family gets news stories about them banned

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An Istanbul court banned access to numerous stories about President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son-in-law and former Finance Minister Berat Albayrak's older brother Serhat Albayrak and his wife Dr. Hafize Şule Albayrak following their applications, the daily Evrensel reported on April 16.

Among the stories that the Albayraks implemented access bans on was a column in Star daily titled "On similarities between secular missionaries and ISIS preachers," penned by Dr. Şule Albayrak herself.

Dr. Albayrak's column had drawn widespread attention in the media, and was even shared by social media accounts of Marmara University where she has been teaching, only to be removed three hours later upon protests.

A petition presented to an Istanbul court by Dr. Albayrak's lawyer said that the news stories they were seeking access bans for included "expressions about [Albayrak] that were untrue, and aimed to humiliate, target and belittle her."

"The expressions in the stories in question were never uttered by [Albayrak] at any time or place, weren't even implied by Albayrak, but made to seem like they were to incriminate her," the petition said. 

Other stories that the court banned access to included stories about lawsuits that Serhat Albayrak launched against Evrensel daily and an instruction allowing the use of data from the Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) for free for his own Turkuvaz media group.

Albayrak's attorney said in his petition that the stories about him were false, attacked his reputation and aimed to hurt his credibility in the public eye.