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Turkish Government To Discuss Amending Law Curbing Free Speech

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  • Turkish Government To Discuss Amending Law Curbing Free Speech

    TURKISH GOVERNMENT TO DISCUSS AMENDING LAW CURBING FREE SPEECH

    International Herald Tribune
    The Associated Press
    Jan 7 2008
    France

    ANKARA, Turkey: Turkey's government will resume discussions Monday on
    a proposal to soften a much-criticized law that inhibits free speech,
    the justice minister said, in a bid to remove a major stumbling block
    to the country's hopes of joining the EU.

    Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin would not give details on the
    proposed change to the law, but said it was likely to be voted on in
    parliament later this week.

    Turkey's penal code makes denigrating "Turkishness" or insulting the
    country's institutions a crime punishable by up to three years in
    prison. The EU has said the law falls short of the bloc's standards on
    free speech and has warned it threatens to further slowdown accession
    talks with Turkey.

    Under the proposed amendment, the Justice Ministry's permission would
    be required for prosecutors to launch investigations into possible
    violations of the article, according to Turkish news reports. The
    term "Turkishness" would be replaced with "Turkish nation," the
    reports said.

    Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk was among the highest profile Turks to be
    prosecuted under the law, when he commented on the mass killings of
    Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century.

    Up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the
    time of World War I, which many genocide scholars consider the first
    genocide of the 20th century.

    Turkey contends the death toll has been inflated and the killings were
    the result of civil unrest, not genocide. The case against Pamuk was
    dropped over a technicality.

    Other writers, journalists and academics have also been prosecuted
    under the law.

    Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist who was the editor of
    the minority Agos newspaper, was shot outside his Istanbul office
    last year, following his prosecution for comments he made about the
    killings of Armenians. His murder revived a debate about the law, and
    many said his prosecution made him a target for radical nationalists.

    In a report released in November, the EU called on Turkey to make
    progress on freedom of expression.

    Turkey began EU accession talks in 2005 but the negotiations were
    partially suspended last year after Ankara refused to open its ports
    and airports to traffic from EU-member Cyprus.
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