A libel crime occurs when a person reports or complains to the competent authorities that they have committed it, even though it is known that they have not committed an illegal act. This attribution can also be made through the press and publication. The most important aspect in the formation of this crime is the search for the purpose of investigation, prosecution or administrative sanction against the complainant, even though it is known that the person has not committed the alleged unlawful act. It should be known that the person who is accused of an illegal act has not committed this act, that is, he is innocent. For this reason, the crime of slander can be committed directly by caste. It is not possible that the crime can be committed by possible caste or tax.
Anyone can be the perpetrator of a libel crime. However, if the person who has committed the crime of slander is a public official and has committed the crime of slander with the tools and equipment he/she has in his/her duty, then Article 266 of the Turkish Penal Code finds its scope of application in this case. The victim of a libel crime is both the person who has been charged with an unlawful act and the public authorities who have initiated an investigation or imposed an administrative sanction decision due to the libel.
What Are The Terms Of The Libel Offense?
In order for the conditions of the decriminalization offence to be formed, the conditions described below must coexist. These;
Attributing An Unlawful Act To The Victim :
The offense of slander will be caused by the perpetrator attributing an unlawful act to the victim, even though he knows that he has not committed the unlawful act. It is enough that the act that constitutes the subject of the libel offense is unlawful. It is not required to be within the scope of the crimes defined in the Turkish Criminal Code. In the same way, the accusation of acts that require a disciplinary investigation or are covered by the Misdemeanor Law will also constitute a libel offense.
The Fact That The Verb Attributed To The Victim Is Objectively Unreal:
In the crime of slander, the perpetrator pretends to have committed an act unrealistically that the victim did not commit. Therefore, in order for this crime to occur, the victim must not have committed the alleged act.
The Fact That The Perpetrator Knows That The Actual Victim He Is Attributing To Has Not Committed:
It is essential that the perpetrator knows that the victim is innocent of the crime of slander. The crime of slander can be committed directly by caste. The perpetrator’s purpose should be to ensure that an investigation, prosecution or administrative sanction is applied against the victim by attributing an illegal act that is unreal.
Attributing An Unlawful Act To The Perpetrator By Notifying Or Complaining To The Authorities Authorized To Prosecute The Crime Or Through The Press :
If the perpetrator commits an act other than denunciation, complaint or attribution of an unlawful act through the press, no libel crime will be committed. For example, if a person directly attributes an unlawful act to the victim, it may not be a libel crime, but an insult crime may occur if there are conditions. You can check out our article Offense of defamation.
How Is the Crime Of Slander Committed?
As explained in the libel law, the crime of slander can be committed in two ways.
- It can be committed by notifying or complaining to the competent authorities, causing an investigation, prosecution or administrative action to be initiated against a person.
- A tip is when a person reports a suspect in a crime or an incident that constitutes a crime to the competent authorities. Everyone has the right to file a report. A complaint is a request from the competent authorities for the prosecution of a crime within a 6-month period by a person authorized to file a complaint about a crime whose investigation or prosecution depends on the complaint. In case of attributing an illegal act that a person knows that he has not committed to someone by notifying or complaining, a libel offense will be formed.
It can be processed by attributing an unlawful act to the press and publication.
What should be understood from the way it is processed by the press and publication is explained in Article 6 of the TCK. According to Article 6 of the TCC, publications made by all kinds of written, visual, audio and electronic mass media are considered to be the way of press and publication. Publications made by means of all means of communication, such as radio, television, newspapers, the Internet, are considered press broadcasting activities. In this case, the competent authorities first learn about the illegal act from the news provided by the press and publication.