Ex-Miss Turkey accused of insulting president
Prosecutor seeks prison term of more than four years for poem posted on Instagram
ISTANBUL— A former Miss World contestant is among the latest targets of prosecution for allegedly insulting Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as a crackdown on criticism extends to individuals on social media.
Since Erdogan was elected president in August, 67 people have been charged with insulting him, about one case every three days, Diken news reported on Feb. 21.
A prosecutor has requested more than four years in jail for Merve Buyuksarac, a model who was Miss Turkey in 2006, for a satirical poem she posted on the photo-sharing site Instagram, the official Anadolu Agency reported Tuesday, citing the indictment. A lawyer for Erdogan submitted a complaint about the 26-yearold model in November last year, it said.
The Buyuksarac case shows government pressure widening to individual commentary from news media, according to Susan Corke, director of Eurasia programs at Freedom House, a rights watchdog based in Washington, D.C. Turkey’s ranking on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index deteriorated during Erdogan’s 11 years as prime minister, dropping to 154th last year from 99th in 2002. That puts it behind countries including Iraq, Russia and Democratic Republic of Congo.
“It used to be that Turkish leaders would go after journalists for their columns and reporting,” Corke said by email on Tuesday. “Now with social media, President Erdogan and many other Turkish leaders like Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek have turned the attack on the whole society.”
Lutfullah Goktas, a spokesman for Erdogan, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment by email and phone on Wednesday. Erdogan told a group of businessmen on Feb. 4 that he’s exercising his “right to self-defence” through court cases against insults.
Gokcek, who’s been mayor of Turkey’s capital city since1994, has more than 2.4 million followers on Twitter and uses it as a platform to announce insult cases and social media campaigns against journalists. That con- trasts with the approach of Erdogan, who lobbied to ban the site last year, calling it “Twitter, shmitter.” The Turkish leader personally posted his first tweet, an anti-smoking message, earlier this month.
Turkey banned access to Twitter entirely ahead of elections in March 2014, amid leaks relating to a corruption probe that started the previous December. The Constitutional Court reversed the ban after the vote.
Buyuksarac, the model, says she didn’t insult Erdogan and that she’s preparing with her lawyer to fight any charges. “I didn’t insult the president — at that time he was prime minister, so it changes the case,” she said by text message. “I only shared the poem, which was shared by 960,000 people in Turkey, and which is also not an insult.”