Turkish journalist Sedef Kabas begins her second month in detention on Tuesday for “insulting the president”: an increasingly common offense that stifles critical voices 16 months before the presidential election, observers believe.
Already, Ms. Kabas, 52, is the journalist who has spent the longest time in prison for this offence, notes Reporters Without Borders (RSF). During a television program, she had quoted an old proverb affirming that a crowned head generally becomes wiser, and added: “we can see that it is false”.
The journalist reiterated her comparison, deemed derogatory for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his regime, on her Twitter account followed by 900,000 subscribers.
Three weeks later, Sedef Kabas was formally charged, his request for release rejected and the Head of State is claiming 250,000 Turkish liras (more than 16,000 euros) in damages.
She will be tried on March 11 and risks, cumulatively, 12 years and ten months in prison for insulting the president and two of his ministers.
“This anti-democratic lèse-majesté law has become a tool of repression which illustrates the authoritarian policy of the government”, denounces the representative of RSF in Turkey, Erol Onderoglu.
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For him, the offense of insulting the president – article 299 of the penal code which RSF is calling for the repeal – “helps to silence critics and weaken the media”.
The European Court of Human Rights was moved last November by the abusive use of Article 299.
– “Respect for the function” –
And the Head of State warned that the case of Mem Kabas “will not go unpunished” and called for “respect and protection of the presidential function”.
“It has nothing to do with freedom of expression,” Erdogan insisted.
Shortly following, eight arrest warrants were issued, including one once morest Olympic swimmer Derya Buyukuncu, for messages on Twitter making fun of the president’s Covid, who tested positive (without symptoms) as well as his wife.
31,000 indictments for contempt
In 2020, more than 31,000 people were indicted for alleged contempt of the president and 36,000 in 2019, according to official judicial statistics, which were only four in 2010.
More generic than the accusation of “terrorism”, the most widespread following the 2016 coup attempt, that of insulting the president aims wider, notes Sumbul Kaya, researcher at Irsem, the Research Institute strategy of the Military School of Paris.
“This offense makes it possible to attack ordinary citizens”, she believes, detecting a “retraction of power in the judiciary” while Turkey is going through an economic crisis which is affecting the popularity of the head of state in the perspective for re-election in 2023.
The offense of “insulting civil servants” existed for a long time, but that of insulting the president, much more frequent now, was created in 2005 under the leadership of the AKP, the party of Mr. Erdogan, in power since 2002, explains Ms. Kaya.
“With the example of the swimmer, President Erdogan considered that the function was under attack but it was regarding his person: we slip from the protection of the function towards that of the person of the president”, she supports.
For Ahmet Insel, economist and political scientist, “the massive use of article 299 aims to gag any strongly critical expression once morest the person (of the president)”.
“Many journalists and lawyers are imprisoned under the charge of propaganda of terrorist organization, but when it cannot be applied, as in the case of Sedef Kabas, Erdogan’s lawyers file a complaint under section 299”.
According to him, this development responds to the “very autocratic conception of the presidential function by Erdogan, who in 2018 became both head of state, head of government and leader of the ruling party”.
Observers still point to the extreme youth of the Istanbul prosecutor – who graduated in 2018 – who charged Ms. Kabas.
“More than 4,000 judges and prosecutors have been dismissed since 2016 and replaced by young lawyers close to the AKP, following opaque (recruitment) procedures”, accuses Mr. Insel, who affirms that “the orders come from above , directly from the presidential palace”.
Nearly thirty international organizations defending journalists have demanded the immediate release of Sedef Kabas.
Turkey is ranked 153rd in the world press freedom index of the NGO Reporters Without Borders.
