Paris Court and Honor of Ex-Army Chief of Turkey
Gen. Kivrikoglu sued RSF for using his picture along with 37 other "predators of press freedom" in an exhibition which was staged last May in the St. Lazare railway station in Paris. All pictures were pinned to a big map of the globe. The reason was that Gen. Kivrikoglu "kept under pressure the Turkish media".
It is not easy to agree with Gen. Kivrikoglu while he says that RSF can’t use his picture without permission. He is public figure and according to laws and international norms his picture and his speechs can be used without prior permission. In this case the Paris Court was right. But this decision doesn’t mean that RSF was right to insult the honor and dignity of the Turkish General. Nobody is allowed to insult honor and dignity of others including our colleagues in RSF. The organization claims that Gen. Kivrikoglu is the enemy of press. This is quite surprising. What did he do against media? As I remember and everybody in Turkey and other countries know this person dealt with terrorists of PKK (Kurdish Workers Party). And may Allah give him more power to overcome this global inhuman problem. We can and should wish him and others, dealing with terrorists by this way, more power.
Yes, Gen. Kivrikoglu is not right suing RSF for using his picture at all. But he is right in one point. He is right suing this organization for using his picture to insult him. Everybody remembers that the picture was under foots of a lot of people. And all these people walked on that picture! Is it possible to allow such kind of behaviour? Is this the face of true democracy? Are the international organizations, defending the rights of journalists or anybody else, right to insult other people? Not of course. Nobody allowed to insult others even that person is involved in crime. In this case everything is clear and Gen. Kivrikoglu had and has nothing to do against media. He had dealt with PKK terrorists hiding under press cards! This is the truth and I believe that everybody in the world would support Gen. Kivrikoglu!
