The Constitutional Court of Turkey has ruled that the government violated academic Yaman Akdeniz’s right to freedom of expression by refusing to release official data on prosecutions under controversial laws criminalizing insults of the president and the Turkish nation, the Bianet news website reported.
In a unanimous decision made public on Wednesday, the court ruled that the justice ministry’s refusal to disclose the requested data violated Article 26 of the Turkish Constitution, which protects freedom of expression. The court reasoned that access to official information, particularly on matters of public concern, is a necessary component of that freedom — because citizens and researchers must be able to obtain factual data to inform public debate and hold authorities accountable.
Akdeniz, a professor and digital rights advocate, first requested data from the justice ministry in 2019 via the Presidential Communication Center (CİMER). He sought figures on investigations and prosecutions between 2014 and 2018 under Articles 299 and 301 of the Turkish Penal Code — laws that penalize “insulting the president” and “insulting the Turkish nation, the Republic or state institutions.”
In Turkey insulting the president is a criminal offense under Article 299 of the penal code. The law has been widely criticized by press freedom advocates, who say it is used to prosecute journalists, politicians and ordinary citizens for expressing views that may be critical of the president or satirizing him, even indirectly.
Article 301 has faced repeated criticism from the European Court of Human Rights and rights advocates for being overly broad and curbing free expression.
The justice ministry first rejected Akdeniz’s request, saying the information was not readily available and that compiling it would require “a separate or special study.”
Akdeniz then filed a complaint with the Ombudsman, a parliamentary watchdog that reviews complaints against public authorities. In an August 2020 decision the ombudsman ruled that the requested data should be provided under the Right to Information Law (Law No. 4982) and recommended that the ministry release it.
When the ministry did not act on that recommendation, Akdeniz filed a case with an administrative court. In 2021 the Ankara Regional Administrative Court ruled in his favor and ordered the ministry to provide the information.
Despite that binding judgment, the justice ministry still refused to hand over the data.
Akdeniz then applied to the Constitutional Court, arguing that his request was protected under both the Turkish Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. He said the data were clearly in the public interest and important for transparency and democratic debate.
The Constitutional Court said citizens must be able to access official information in order to monitor those in power and to safeguard the rule of law. It noted that the requested data were directly linked to freedom of expression because the criminal provisions at issue regulate speech.
The court found that the ministry’s refusal to provide the data — even after a final court order — unjustifiably restricted Akdeniz’s access to information. It ordered the ministry’s Directorate of Judicial Records and Statistics to comply with the regional court’s ruling and fulfill his request and awarded Akdeniz 34,000 Turkish lira (about $1,100) in non-pecuniary damages.
