Turkey again condemned by ECHR for arbitrary detention of journalists

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday condemned Turkey for the ninth time for imprisoning a journalist in the aftermath of the 2016 coup attempt "without reasonable grounds to suspect that the applicant committed a crime".

The European Court has now upheld 19 Turkish journalists in such circumstances.

Ali Bulaç (1951 and resident in Istanbul) is the 19th journalist to be compensated by Turkey. In his case, 12,240 euros for moral damages for violation of his rights to liberty, security and freedom of expression.

The plaintiff, a reporter for the daily Zaman, which is considered the press organ of Fetullah Gülen's network, was arrested on 26 July 2016 after he went to a police station after hearing in the media that he was suspected of belonging to the network.

Bulaç was imprisoned after the judge found that his articles were "apology for a terrorist organisation".

On 11 May 2018, the public prosecutor of the Republic ordered his release, considering that his articles had not incited the coup d'état.

The Istanbul Criminal Court sentenced him on 6 July of that year to 8 years and nine months in prison.

A year later, the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the applicant, in a close vote of 9 to 6, and awarded him compensation of 3,760 euros for moral damages and 410 euros for fees.

The applicant argued before the European Court that there was no evidence against his imprisonment, complained of excessive pre-trial detention and that the judicial decisions ordering it were not sufficiently reasoned.

The judgment states that "the deprivation of liberty in question was not proportionate" and that there was therefore a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

It concludes that a measure favourable to the applicant "is not sufficient in principle to deprive him of the status of victim", unless the national authorities recognise, explicitly or substantially, to remedy the violation.

The Strasbourg Court's judgment adds that "the detention of critical voices generates multiple negative effects", such as "a deterrent effect on freedom of expression, intimidating civil society and silencing divergent voices".

The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights participated as third parties, criticising the high number of imprisoned journalists, "210, not counting those released after testifying".