A court has sentenced seven journalists to 18 days in prison for recording audio and video during a hearing in the high-profile Kobani trial, in which 108 defendants — including 18 who are in pretrial detention and former HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ — are being tried.
Rabia Çetin
The Ankara West 14th Criminal Court of First Instance convicted journalists Damla Kırmızıtaş, Derya Okatan Albayrak, Fatih Polat, Fırat Can Arslan, Handan Ceren Bayar, Hüseyin Hayatsever and Kaan Can Bircan of the offense of “recording audio and video in a courtroom.”
The court said that law enforcement officers determined that the journalists had made recordings with mobile phones and tablets during the verdict hearing of the Kobani trial, held on May 16, 2024 at the Sincan Prison Campus in Ankara. It concluded that “it is established that the offense was committed.”
The case was handled under Turkey’s simplified trial procedure, and a ruling was issued without holding a hearing. The court said the file was not complex and that the available evidence was sufficient. Under Article 286/1 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), the journalists were sentenced to 1 month in prison at the lower limit; after discretionary mitigation and a reduction under the simplified trial procedure, the sentence was reduced to 18 days.
The court ruled to defer the announcement of the verdict (HAGB) for Damla Kırmızıtaş, a legal mechanism allowing a sentence to be suspended under certain conditions. For some of the defendants, the short-term prison sentence was converted into a judicial fine of 900 Turkish lira. In the case of journalist Fatih Polat, the court ordered the application of a specific enforcement regime for repeat offenders due to a prior conviction.
“Only evidence is a police report”
The journalists’ lawyers emphasized that their clients were present at the hearing in their capacity as journalists and did not make any audio or video recordings. They argued that the only evidence against their clients was a police report, that no forensic examination had been conducted on the phones, and that there was no concrete determination of any recording. They said the report alone would not be sufficient for a conviction.
The lawyers also maintained that the journalists were monitoring the hearing as part of their duty to inform the public and that the material and moral elements of the offense were not met. In their defense statements, they argued that the proceedings constituted a disproportionate interference with freedom of the press and expression, that no explicit ban was communicated to journalists during the hearing, and that no report containing individualized findings had been prepared.
An investigation was initially launched against 21 journalists on the same charge. Some of the journalists — including reporters from Hürriyet, ANKA News Agency, Ulusal Kanal, SZC TV, VOA, Gazete Duvar, Evrensel, Reuters and Medyascope — accepted a prepayment offer under the simplified trial procedure. The investigation against the seven journalists who did not accept prepayment was turned into a criminal case.
