A Turkish court has acquitted Bloomberg reporters of reporting a drop in the pound

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A Turkish court has acquitted 33 people, including two Turkish Bloomberg News reporters and other local media reporters, acquitting them of spreading false economic news in an article and on Twitter during the height of the monetary crisis. Turkey in 2018.

This case was followed by an appeal to justice in August 2018 of the Turkish Banking Regulatory Authority (BDDK) for a Bloomberg article on the effects of the sharp fall of the Turkish pound and the way authorities and banks responded.

An Istanbul court today dropped charges against the two news agency journalists for “attacking Turkey’s economic stability”, ruling that “no legal evidence” proves such an attack, according to the Turkish news agency DHA.

The article was published in August 2018, while the Turkish pound was depreciating against the US dollar, amid a diplomatic crisis with the US.

A Turkish prosecutor had requested in June 2019 that the two journalists be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Fercan Jalinkilic and Kerim Karakaya were on trial for the article, while other defendants in the case, including journalists Sedef Kampas and Merdan Janardag, as well as economist Mustafa Sonmez, were on trial for their Twitter messages about

The Turkish lira fell sharply in 2018 amid concerns over the influence of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on monetary policy and the deterioration of ties between Ankara and Washington. In August 2018, the exchange rate of the Turkish pound against the dollar fell to 7.24, the lowest level at that time.

Late last year, another currency crisis triggered by a series of interest rate cuts demanded by President Erdogan saw the pound fall to its lowest point – ,4 18.4 for a dollar – before recovering. The monetary crisis fueled inflation, which reached 61% in March.

The defendants denied the charges against them.

The court ruled today that the actions of the accused are not a crime and acquitted the 33 defendants. Among those being tried in the case were some who were being prosecuted for simply posting jokes about the financial situation, according to the DHA and Reporters Without Borders (RSF)’s representative in Turkey Erol Enteroglu.

NGOs regularly report the erosion of press freedom in Turkey, which ranks 153rd out of 180 in the 2021 Press Freedom Report published by Reporters Without Borders.

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