Turkey: Two Bloomberg Journalists Judged for Article on Fall of the Pound

Istanbul (AFP)

Two Turkish journalists from the US Bloomberg agency accused of trying to sabotage the Turkish economy after an article on the collapse of the pound appeared Friday in an Istanbul court.

The two journalists are among dozens of defendants tried in a single trial, some of whom are prosecuted for simply posting jokes about the economic situation.

Bloomberg's two journalists, Kerim Karakaya and Fercan Yalinkilic, are accused of attempting to "undermine Turkey's economic stability", following a complaint filed by the sector's regulatory and supervisory agency Banking (BDDK).

The offending article was published in August 2018, when the Turkish lira collapsed against the US dollar in the midst of a diplomatic crisis with the United States.

A Turkish prosecutor has requested in June up to five years in prison against the two journalists

"I can not understand why our article provoked such a reaction," Karakaya told the court, according to an AFP journalist on the spot.

Other defendants said they were stunned to have been chased for comments posted on social networks.

Reporters Without Borders' (Reporters Without Borders) representative Erol Onderoglu, who attended the hearing, said the trial "illustrates a worrying new trend towards covering economic affairs".

The judge dismissed the acquittals made by the lawyers and adjourned the trial to 17 January 2020.

In April, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had sharply criticized the Western media, which he accused of inflating the economic difficulties of Turkey, targeting the Financial Times for an article on the Turkish Central Bank.

The Turkish economy is going through a particularly difficult period, having experienced this year its first recession in 10 years, with inflation of 20% and the fall of the Turkish lira which lost nearly a third of its value against the dollar last year .

In July the SETA think tank, close to power, published a report citing the names of some Turkish journalists working for foreign media accusing them of using "anti-government language".

© 2019 AFP