ANKARA - A Turkish court on Tuesday ordered a veteran journalist to pay compensation to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over an article critical of the government's failed plans to criminalize adultery, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The court sentenced Fikret Otyam to pay Erdogan 5,000 New Turkish Liras (3,650 dollars, or 2,835 euros) on grounds that the magazine article was defamatory, the report said.
In the article published in September, Otyam wrote that Erdogan had "successfully brought the European Union affair down to the level of the crotches of men and women" in reference to a government attempt to include an article on adultery in an EU-sought penal code reform.
The plan was dropped following public outcry and an EU warning that such a move could jeopardise Ankara's aspirations to join the bloc.
Erdogan, who has often portrayed himself as a champion of civil rights and freedoms, has recently come under fire for his attacks on the media, raising doubts over his sincerity to embrace democratic reforms.
In February, Erdogan won a court battle against a political cartoonist who was also fined 5,000 lira for depicting him as a cat entangled in a ball of yarn.
Last month, he sued a satirical weekly after it depicted him as various animals in protest at the earlier court ruling against political cartoonist Musa Kart.
04/05/2005 16:43 GMT