Julian Borger - Journalist Pelin Ünker sentenced to jail in Turkey over Paradise Papers investigation
A Turkish journalist
has been sentenced to more than a year in jail for her work on the Paradise Papers
investigation into offshore tax havens, because it revealed details of
the business activities of the country’s former prime minister and his sons. Pelin Ünker, a member
of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) was found
guilty in an Istanbul court of “defamation and insult” for writing about
companies in Malta owned by Binali Yıldırım and his sons. Yıldırım was prime
minister from 2016 to 2018, when the post was abolished, and is now the speaker
of the country’s national assembly.
After the sentence was
issued, Ünker told
the ICIJ she intended to appeal, pointing out that the Yildirim family
had admitted that articles about their Maltese businesses were accurate. She said: “This
decision is not a surprise for us. Because the result was certain from the
beginning. There is no criminal offence or defamation in my articles. “The fact is Binali Yıldırım’s sons have
Maltese companies. Binali Yıldırım had already accepted that they have these
companies. In the indictment, it is also accepted.”
Turkey has the world’s
worst record for jailing journalists, with 68 in prison at the end of last
year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. All the jailed
reporters are facing charges of crimes against the state. The Paradise
Papers revelations stemmed from a mass leak of documentation on the
offshore financial industry published by a consortium of 90 media outlets
around the world, including the Guardian.
The investigation has sparked new or expanded criminal investigations in
Switzerland and Argentina and accelerated the process of reform in the European
Union.
The ICIJ’s director,
Gerard Ryle, condemned Ünker’s jail sentence of 13 months, as the latest in a
long series of attacks on free speech in Turkey. “This unjust ruling is
about silencing fair and accurate reporting. Nothing more,” Ryle said. “ICIJ
commends Pelin Ünker’s brave and truthful investigative reporting and it
condemns this latest assault on journalistic freedom under Turkish president
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s autocratic rule.”
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