Turkish PM Erdoğan sues Today's Zaman journalist over critical tweets

Erdoğan sues Today's Zaman journalist over critical tweets.(TZ).

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has filed a complaint against Today's Zaman journalist Mahir Zeynalov for posting tweets that include “heavy insults and swear words in a bid to provoke the nation to hatred and animosity.”

Erdoğan's lawyers said in a petition they submitted to Ankara Public Prosecutor's Office that Zeynalov's tweets constitute a “blunt assault on Erdoğan's honor and reputation and his personal rights.”

Erdoğan's lawyers said Zeynalov's tweets were posted to his nearly 80,000 followers on Twitter and that they contained no social or political meaning. They said Zeynalov made false and provocative posts on Twitter and “committed a crime by exceeding the limit of criticism.”

The petition said the “crime of insult” was committed because of Erdoğan's “public duty” and that it was done through social media.

The petition demanded that prosecutors launch a “public probe” into Zeynalov.

Zeynalov said his tweets are mostly about news reports appeared in the media and that they include no insult against Erdoğan or content that would provoke society. “The accusations directed against me in the petition are all groundless,” Zeynalov added.

The complaint against Zeynalov came days after the pro-government media outlets published news reports, criticizing him for tweeting a news report published in Today's Zaman. The daily reported that police chiefs refused to comply with a prosecutor's order to detain nearly 30 suspects in the second round of the graft probe, including a Saudi businessman who is on a US terrorist list.

The legal action against the Today's Zaman journalist comes at a time when Erdoğan's government is scrambling to contain a graft scandal that has implicated the sons of several ministers.

Erdoğan has taken on domestic and foreign media, accusing them of being part of the conspiracy for reporting on the scandal, in a tactic reminiscent of the government's handling of the summer's widespread anti-government protests. He defiantly denounced the protests as a plot by foreign hands -- backed by the international media -- to topple his government and destabilize Turkey.

Many Turks were outraged when news channels largely ignored the summer protests in their initial stages, instead airing cookery shows and documentaries including one on penguins. Many people turned to Twitter and Facebook for news of the unrest and penguins became a symbol of the protests.

Since the scandal broke, journalists have been barred from entering police buildings. Media advocacy groups have accused the government of trying to control coverage of the allegations of illicit money transfers to Iran and bribery for construction projects.

The pro-government media has largely downplayed the corruption allegations, and in some cases, exercised self-censorship.

In recent years, critics say the government has grown more authoritarian, showing no tolerance for dissent and cracking down on the free press. According to an annual report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Turkey has jailed more journalists than any other country, with Iran and China running close behind.

Erdoğan has publicly lashed out at journalists whose reporting he does not like. On several occasions, those journalists have been sacked by media bosses, keen to stay on the government's good side.

"Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship" - Bruce Coville.