Turkish court blocks access to websites for reporting on preliminary probe into Erdoğan’s son

Duvar English

An Istanbul court on June 27 imposed a publication ban on news reports about a preliminary probe into President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son Bilal Erdoğan. 

On June 26, Reuters published a special report named “US, Swedish prosecutors study graft complaint naming son of Turkey's Erdogan.”

The report said “Anti-corruption authorities in the United States and Sweden are reviewing a complaint alleging that the Swedish affiliate of a U.S. company pledged to pay tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks if a son of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan helped it secure a dominant market position in the country.”

The same report added "Ultimately, no kickbacks were paid, according to the complaint submitted to authorities by an individual and reviewed by Reuters."

Istanbul Anatolian 5th Criminal Court of Peace has blocked access to 93 websites and Twitter accounts on the grounds of “violation of personal rights” for publishing the report of Reuters.

In its decision, the court said “Malicious distortions of truth may exceed the limits of acceptable criticism. Therefore, the duty of reporting necessarily includes responsibilities, and the limits that the press organizations must comply with. It was necessary to decide on the acceptance of the applicant's request regarding the content that is far from reality, unconfirmed and far from goodwill and violating the applicant's personality rights.”

Similarly, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun on June 26 deemed the reporting “a black mark” in the history of journalism.