The former editor-in-chief of Zaman, one of Turkey’s top newspapers, who was hauled out of his office on live TV by Turkish police last month, was handed a 14-month sentence for insulting the prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, in a tweet, but the court, possibly mindful of the growing international impatience with Turkey’s treatment of journalists, suspended the sentence.
At the same time, another hearing was held in İstanbul to address another “insult” trial regarding Keneş’s tweets, this time about President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. More ominously, this hearing was held at the Criminal Court.
“I will continue to oppose turning this country into an open-air prison and an unlawful, oppressive and arbitrary administration,” Keneş said at the time of nhis detention, which is part of a growing crackdown on the Turkish media by the increasingly authoritarian Erdoğan. Keneş’s attorney claimed that no tweet, by its tweeted nature, could be considered an “insulting” expression.
“The tweets should be considered within the scope of press freedom under the client’s journalistic identity and the constitutional freedom of expression,” the lawyer pleaded with the court, that nonetheless ruled that Keneş, in fact, did insult Davutoğlu in his tweets.