Minister Tunç: There are no journalists imprisoned for journalistic activities

Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç spoke at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) 2024 Budget Negotiations.

Yılmaz Tunç said, "Our will for reform in the judiciary continues in a planned and uninterrupted manner for the establishment of a reliable and accessible justice system that will meet the needs of our nation."

Tunç continued as follows: "Currently, there is no journalist imprisoned due to journalistic activities, but we have applied criminal proceedings because a situation that occurred as a crime was posted as a 'tweet'."

The highlights of Minister Tunç's speech are as follows:

“Our will for reform in the judiciary continues in a planned and uninterrupted manner for the establishment of a reliable and accessible justice system that will meet the needs of our nation.

Currently, there is no journalist imprisoned due to journalistic activities, but we have applied criminal proceedings because a situation that occurred as a crime was posted as a ‘tweet’.

"Starting from next year, we are launching the Legal Professions Entrance Exam. From now on, it will be necessary to pass this preliminary screening to begin legal internships and to take the judge and prosecutor assistantship exam. This will increase the quality of legal professions. Another important issue we will start implementing is the institution of judge and prosecutor assistantship. From now on, instead of the 2-year judge and prosecutor candidacy system, we are implementing a 3-year judge and prosecutor assistantship system, where 1 year will be spent at the Justice Academy and 2 years will be spent alongside our experienced judges and prosecutors in a master-apprentice relationship. The first exam will be held by ÖSYM this weekend.

(Criticisms regarding the judiciary) In accordance with Article 138 of the Constitution, it would not be correct for us to make an assessment regarding ongoing judicial processes. There is an opportunity for the judiciary's erroneous decisions to be corrected within the judicial mechanism itself. This is also being done.

To date, our 32 thousand 500 conciliators have reached settlements in over 1.5 million files."

News Source: 12punto