Morsi death sentence fuels media controversy
The death sentence against ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has sparked a fresh controversy in Turkey, stoking government pressure on already muzzled media outlets.
![TURKEY-PROTESTS/MURSI Pro-Islamist demonstrators hold a poster of former Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi during a rally in support of him in front of the Haghia Sophia museum at Sultanahmet square in Istanbul, Turkey, May 24, 2015. REUTERS/Yagiz Karahan TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX1ECGI](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2015/05/RTX1ECGI.jpg/RTX1ECGI.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=rKgZpTIu)
“The world is shocked! Death sentence for president who got 52% of the vote.” This was the headline Turkey’s mass-selling daily Hurriyet used on its website — with a photo of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — after ousted Egyptian leader Mohammed Morsi was sentenced to death May 16. The story unleashed a fierce onslaught on the paper by both Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Adding to the pressure, a lawyer named Rahim Kurt, who turned out to have sought a berth on the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) ticket for the June 7 elections, lodged a criminal complaint against Hurriyet, demanding that Editor-in-Chief Sedat Ergin and online editor Izzet Dogan be arrested and tried on terror-related charges. The lawyer said Hurriyet “incited hatred and enmity among the people, encouraged armed action against the Turkish government, praised crime and criminals and spread terrorist propaganda.”