By
Dan Litttauer,
9.01.2012
Turkey's High
Court of Appeals has ordered the Turkish daily paper Yeni Akit
to pay compensation for insulting LGBT people in a headline it
printed in 2008, according to a report published by
Hürriyet.
Yeni Akit printed an article titled "Üskül prefers perverts,"
regarding Zafer Üskül, the then head of Turkish Parliamentary
Human Rights Commission who attended an "International Anti-Homophobism
Meeting" organized by KAOS GL, a leading support organisation
for Turkey’s LGBT community.
The article written by columnist Serdar Arseven described Üskül
as "an AKP [Justice and Development Party] member who gave
assurances to she-males.” This was in reference to his statement
during the meeting that the government guaranteed that LGBT
would not be segregated due to their sexual orientations.
“[Üskül] went on and attended a meeting by sexual perverts! A
meeting of [gays],” Arseven wrote.
KAOS GL filed a lawsuit against Yeni Akit and Arseven, seeking
compensation for the headline and the related article. The
lawsuits, however, were rejected by two Ankara courts on the
grounds that the newspaper was "within the limits of criticism."
The High Court of Appeals overruled the judgements of the two
courts, saying, "The freedom of the press does not encompass the
freedom to insult the personal freedoms of individuals."
The court stated that Yeni Akit insulted people with different
sexual orientations in a way which could not be considered
criticism and ordered the paper to pay 4,000 Turkish liras
($2,123), while Arseven has been sentenced to pay 2,000 liras
($1,061) in damages.
KAOS GL told Gay Middle East that the court's ruling was a
breakthrough: "The Newspaper Vakit (currently named) has been
publishing news and articles spreading hate speech. All the
cases that we filed against their hate speech had not produced
any results so far. As a matter of fact, in both cases
mentioned, the court had rejected the demand for compensation,
saying it was "within the limits of criticism.
"The Supreme Court's Decision that such hate speech cannot be
considered under the freedom of press constitutes a leading
case."
