ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey’s main opposition party will apply to the Constitutional Court to request annulment of a media law that would jail people for spreading “disinformation” and which it has described as unprecedented censorship, the party leader said on Tuesday.
The law, proposed by President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party (AKP) and its nationalist allies, was approved by parliament on Thursday and published in the country’s Official Gazette on Tuesday, completing the legislative process.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu told lawmakers from his party in parliament that the CHP was asking the court on Tuesday to suspend implementation of the law’s most contentious Article 29, which concerns jail sentences.
It would then request that the country’s top court annul the entire law, which the government says aims to regulate online publications, protect the country and combat disinformation.
Rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies have said the law’s vague reference to “false or misleading information” can be interpreted differently by courts and could be used to punish those critical of the government.
The AKP has dismissed the criticism and says it opposes censorship, adding the law aims to protect everyone from false accusations on social media.
(Reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu;Writing by Daren Butler;Editing by Ali Kucukgocmen)
