Home MEDIUM AND NEAR EAST TURKEY – Four Charlie Hebdo journalists charged with “insulting” Erdogan

TURKEY – Four Charlie Hebdo journalists charged with “insulting” Erdogan

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©Le Matin.ch

The four journalists are accused of insulting the Turkish president in a cartoon published last year. A prosecutor is asking for up to four years in prison.

A Turkish prosecutor demanded on Friday March 26 up to four years imprisonment against four collaborators of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo whom he accuses of having “insulted” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a cartoon published last year .

According to the Turkish state press agency Anadolu, the four accused Charlie Hebdo collaborators are the cartoonist Alice Petit and three managers of the famous weekly, Gérard Biard, Julien Sérignac and Laurent Sourisseau, said Riss. The publication of this cartoon, in October, had aroused the anger of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a context of sharp diplomatic tensions between Ankara and Paris. We saw the authoritarian Turkish president drawn in underpants, beer in hand, lifting the dress of a veiled woman, exclaiming: “Ouuuh! The Prophet !”.

“Vulgar, obscene and dishonorable”

In his indictment, which has yet to be formally accepted by a court for a trial to begin, the Turkish prosecutor considers that this cartoon “does not in any way fall within the scope of freedom of expression or the press ”, describing the press cartoon as“ vulgar, obscene and dishonorable ”. After the publication of this cartoon, Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced a “vile attack” committed by “scoundrels”.

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This case took place in the context of a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and France, Recep Tayyip Erdogan notably accusing French President Emmanuel Macron of “Islamophobia” for having defended the right to caricature the Prophet Muhammad. The announcement of the indictment of the Charlie Hebdo journalists also comes a few days after Emmanuel Macron accused Turkey of “interference” and in the midst of a controversy in France over the financing of a mosque supported by a pro-association. Turkish in Strasbourg (east).

The NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday denounced the prosecution of Charlie Hebdo collaborators, accusing Ankara of wanting to “expand censorship beyond Turkey”. Regularly pinned down by NGOs, Turkey is ranked 154th out of 180 in the press freedom index published by RSF. Dozens of journalists have been arrested and several opposition media prosecuted or closed in recent years in this country.

Source: Le Figaro

       

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