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Turkish Freedoms Reform Criticised As Inadequate

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  • Turkish Freedoms Reform Criticised As Inadequate

    TURKISH FREEDOMS REFORM CRITICISED AS INADEQUATE

    EuroNews, France
    April 30 2008

    Turkey's writers and political activists say an attempt by parliament
    to increase freedom of speech in the country does not go far enough.

    The crime of "insulting Turkishness" is being removed from the penal
    code after being used to prosecute hundreds of writers. However Turkish
    deputies have opted to keep the punishment of up to two years in jail
    for anyone who insults Turkey as a nation. Parliament voted by five
    to one in favour of the revision. Only the Nationalists were strongly
    against it, accusing the government of pandering to the European Union.

    The reaction on the streets was mixed: "This should have been done a
    while ago in a democratic country," said one man. "I think there could
    still be some abuses under the new article, given the geopolitical
    position of our country" said another man.

    The European Union has welcomed the change in the law as a step
    forward in Turkey's commitment to political reform.

    Political Analyst, Bahedir Kaleagasi said: "Most of the cases, most
    of the investigations against intellectuals, ended with no punishment
    anyway, but the fact that the article existed, and the way it was
    interpreted by some prosecutors, has created a certain pressure,
    which is why a change was required, addressing really cases where
    an institution is insulted rather than an intangible concept such
    as Turkishness."

    However, thousands of people have been taken to court in the past
    five years, and 745 people have been convicted. There have also been
    wider consequences. Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was shot
    dead after being found guilty of insulting Turkishness by writing an
    article about Armenian genocide.

    The Nobel Literature Laureate Orhan Pamuk was also charged for the
    same crime, after the law was introduced in 2005, but for him the
    case was dropped.
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