Tatar’s lawsuit against newspaper thrown out by court

Former Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s defamation lawsuit against newspaper Yeniduzen was rejected by a court in northern Nicosia on Tuesday, with the court finding that the newspaper had acted within its rights to freedom of expression.

Chief justice Serife Katip read the decision, referring to the Council of Europe’s committee of ministers, which had in 2023 warned against “strategic lawsuits” against journalists, which she said “constitute indirect interference with freedom of expression” and deter journalists from carrying out their work.

“Preventing harsh criticism of top politicians could lead to self-censorship, discourage journalists from reporting in the public interest, and narrow the scope of democratic debate,” she said.

She added that the articles at which Tatar had taken umbrage constituted “humorous and satirical language”, which is “a valid method of journalism, under both European and domestic law”.

“The articles in question were directed not at [Tatar’s] personal life, but at his political position, stance, and public duties, and they should be evaluated within the context of the public and political issues being debated in society at the time they were written,” she said.

The articles had been written by Serhat Incirli, who said after the verdict was issued that “I do not do journalism to commit crimes”.

“Committing a crime means personal insult and profanity. As [Tatar’s] witnesses also stated, I tried to include a certain amount of humour and satire in the articles. That is my style. I said the same thing when I was cross-examined. My problem is not Ersin Tatar, but President Ersin Tatar. I wrote about Tatar’s inability to do the job and what his mistakes were,” he said.

He also said that the compensation Tatar had demanded – a maximum of 5 million TL (€94,725) – could have placed Yeniduzen in serious financial difficulty had it been granted.

“If we had lost this case, it would have been an amount we could not have paid,” he said, before calling on Tatar to repay to the Turkish Cypriot authorities the money he had taken from public funds during his time as Turkish Cypriot leader to finance the lawsuit.

“He filed a civil lawsuit using public funds. He also tried to file a criminal case using public funds, but the chief public prosecutor’s office rejected it. Therefore, I demand that Ersin Tatar repay the public funds to the state. That is all I want,” he said.

Yeniduzen’s editor-in-chief Mert Ozdag also made reference to the case’s financial aspect, saying that the high amount of compensation demanded by Tatar amounted to “an aggravated compensation and a demand for closure”.

Tatar, he said, had “used his position as president to demand the closure of a newspaper”.

“The court made a historic and instructive decision today. The verdict was very important in the context of the period through which we are going. Ersin Tatar could not shut our newspaper down,” he said, before adding that the case was “a matter of survival” for the newspaper.

Incirli’s articles had made various robust criticisms of Tatar. On one occasion, he wrote that “if one of the goals of Eoka, Eoka B, Elam, Makarios, Grivas, Sampson, Yiorkadjis, and all the Greek Cypriot institutions, organisations, and individuals which come to mind was to destroy the Turkish Cypriot community, [Tatar] has succeeded”.

He had also accused Tatar of “gobbledygook community leadership” – a term at which Tatar took particular umbrage during his deposition in court in April last year.

Tatar had made reference to pre-election polling for last year’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election, saying “my position is clear” and that “right now, I am still number one in the polls”.

“The world hears him say I talk gobbledygook. He knows I am a Cambridge graduate and where I have worked. He is spreading the word to the world that I, who was this country’s finance minister for five years, that Ersin Tatar, who was prime minister and won an election against Akinci, is an object of pity and a buffoon,” he said.

In the end, Tatar succumbed to a chastening defeat in last year’s election, being unseated by Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman and winning just 35.8 per cent of the vote – the lowest proportion of the vote ever recorded by an incumbent Turkish Cypriot leader.