Reuters said on Monday it was appealing a Turkish court order to remove a news article on the agency’s website that said US and Swedish prosecutors are reviewing a bribery complaint alleging a son of President Tayyip Erdogan.
The court ruling, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, gave the news agency seven days to appeal.
A special report by Reuters published on June 26 said anti-corruption agencies in the US and Sweden are investigating a complaint alleging that the Swedish subsidiary of a US company has agreed to pay tens of millions in bribes if Erdogan’s son would help it secure a dominant market position in the country.
According to the report, US and Swedish authorities have launched preliminary investigations.
Ultimately, no bribes were paid, according to the complaint filed by an individual with the authorities and reviewed by Reuters.
In fact, Swedish company Dignita Systems AB abruptly abandoned the project late last year, according to two people familiar with the matter and the company’s release, obtained by Reuters. Dignita’s US owner confirmed that the project was halted in part due to “potentially unsafe conduct” in Turkey.
Reuters said it “appealed the court’s removal order on the grounds that it conflicted with Turkey’s legal protections of freedom of the press and freedom of expression.”
“Our story was created in accordance with Reuters’ trust principles and our commitment to publishing fair and accurate reporting in the global public interest. We stand by it,” the agency said.
The Turkish Presidency’s Communications Directorate did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Reuters objection and explanation.
Before the article was published, a senior official at the directorate declined to comment. Before publishing the article, Bilal Erdogan, through a lawyer, said that the claims that he worked with Dignita were “completely false”. It is a “network of lies,” added the lawyer.
After the article was published, Turkey’s Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said, “We condemn Reuters for spreading this hoax.” The article contained “unfounded allegations,” he added.
The court ruling ordered the blocking of access to 93 website addresses related to the story. Some had published the original story, others summarized it, quoted from it, or tweeted about it.
The verdict said the application to block access was made by a lawyer on behalf of the president’s son, Bilal Erdogan. The article violated the son’s personal rights and was “far from reality, unverified and far from benevolence”.
