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Reporters without borders (press release), France
Feb 1 2007
Turkey - Annual report 2007
Area: 774,820 sq.km.
Population: 71,190,000.
Language: Turkish.
Head of government: Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Press freedom is still restricted by article 301 of the criminal
code, which is frequently used against journalists, writers and
intellectuals mentioning sensitive topics such as the Armenian
massacres and the Kurdish question. Negotiations for Turkish
membership of the European Union have focused on the need to change
this situation and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said publicly
he wants dialogue about it.
At least 65 people, including many journalists and writers, have been
prosecuted under article 301 of the new criminal code introduced on 1
June 2005. The article, headed `Denigration of Turkishness, the
republic and state organs and institutions,' provides for between six
months and three years in prison for `anyone who openly denigrates
the government, judicial institutions or military or police
structures.'
Scenes of violence accompanied the trials in 2006 of novelists Orhan
Pamuk (who won the 2006 Nobel Prize for literature) and Elif Shafak,
Armenian-origin journalist Hrant Dink and five columnists with the
major dailies Milliyet and Radikal (Erol Katircioglu, Murat Belge,
Haluk Sahin, Hasan Cemal and Smet Berkan). All were acquitted.
Turks are divided on the issue. The EU enlargement commission's
report on 8 November said press freedom must improve and that
`freedom of expression in line with European standards is not yet
guaranteed by the present legal framework (...) Article 301 and other
provisions of the Turkish penal code that restrict freedom of
expression need to be brought in line with the European Convention of
Human Rights (ECHR).'
The strong campaign for and against about Turkish EU membership and
the award of the Nobel Prize for literature to a writer being
prosecuted for his work forced the prime minister to publicly declare
support for amending article 301. Several journalists prosecuted
under it said they would take their cases to the European Human
Rights Court.
Among them was Dink, editor of the Armenian weekly Agos, who was
given a six-month suspended prison sentence on 7 October 2005 for
writing a series of articles about `Armenian identity.' He was
prosecuted again on 18 July 2006 four days after an interview with
Reuters news agency about his prison sentence for `insulting
Turkishness' in which he used the word `genocide' about the Turkish
massacres of Armenians in 1915. He faces a new prison sentence of
three years.
worrying developments
Amendments to the country's anti-terrorist law that were approved by
parliament on 29 June also threatened freedom of expression by
allowing imprisonment for printing news about `terrorist
organisations' and raised fears of unjustified prosecution of
journalists who dared to mention the subject. Rüstu Demirkaya, of the
pro-Kurdish news agency Diha, was jailed on 14 June in the eastern
town of Tunceli for `collaborating with the PKK/Kongra-Gel' after a
former militant reportedly accused him of giving the PKK a laptop and
10 blank CDs and telling the party about an ongoing military
operation. He faces up to 12 years in prison.
Three bomb attacks on the far-left daily paper Cumhuriyet on 5, 10
and 11 May caused much damage but no injuries and its journalists
immediately resumed work. Ilyas Aktas, of the far-left fortnightly
Devrimci Demokrasi, was shot and seriously wounded in the
southeastern town of Diyarbakir on 30 March during a demonstration to
honour 14 Kurdish rebels killed by the army a few days earlier. He
died on 14 April.
Police were criticised for failing to help an injured journalist from
the daily Sabah, Aliye Cetinkaya, during a protest in the town of
Konya on 10 February against publication in Europe of cartoons of the
Prophet Mohammed. Demonstrators attacked her because she was not
wearing a headscarf, wore jeans and was chewing gum. She was insulted
and stoned and shoes were thrown at her. Police stood by and
colleagues had to take her from the scene.
But 2006 ended with the good news of the release of two journalists
of the pro-Kurdish news agency Diha, Evrim Dengiz and Nesrin Yazar,
after nine months in prison for `undermining the unity of the state
and territorial integrity.' They had been arrested while reporting on
a demonstration in support of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has
been in prison since 1999.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Feb 1 2007
Turkey - Annual report 2007
Area: 774,820 sq.km.
Population: 71,190,000.
Language: Turkish.
Head of government: Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Press freedom is still restricted by article 301 of the criminal
code, which is frequently used against journalists, writers and
intellectuals mentioning sensitive topics such as the Armenian
massacres and the Kurdish question. Negotiations for Turkish
membership of the European Union have focused on the need to change
this situation and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said publicly
he wants dialogue about it.
At least 65 people, including many journalists and writers, have been
prosecuted under article 301 of the new criminal code introduced on 1
June 2005. The article, headed `Denigration of Turkishness, the
republic and state organs and institutions,' provides for between six
months and three years in prison for `anyone who openly denigrates
the government, judicial institutions or military or police
structures.'
Scenes of violence accompanied the trials in 2006 of novelists Orhan
Pamuk (who won the 2006 Nobel Prize for literature) and Elif Shafak,
Armenian-origin journalist Hrant Dink and five columnists with the
major dailies Milliyet and Radikal (Erol Katircioglu, Murat Belge,
Haluk Sahin, Hasan Cemal and Smet Berkan). All were acquitted.
Turks are divided on the issue. The EU enlargement commission's
report on 8 November said press freedom must improve and that
`freedom of expression in line with European standards is not yet
guaranteed by the present legal framework (...) Article 301 and other
provisions of the Turkish penal code that restrict freedom of
expression need to be brought in line with the European Convention of
Human Rights (ECHR).'
The strong campaign for and against about Turkish EU membership and
the award of the Nobel Prize for literature to a writer being
prosecuted for his work forced the prime minister to publicly declare
support for amending article 301. Several journalists prosecuted
under it said they would take their cases to the European Human
Rights Court.
Among them was Dink, editor of the Armenian weekly Agos, who was
given a six-month suspended prison sentence on 7 October 2005 for
writing a series of articles about `Armenian identity.' He was
prosecuted again on 18 July 2006 four days after an interview with
Reuters news agency about his prison sentence for `insulting
Turkishness' in which he used the word `genocide' about the Turkish
massacres of Armenians in 1915. He faces a new prison sentence of
three years.
worrying developments
Amendments to the country's anti-terrorist law that were approved by
parliament on 29 June also threatened freedom of expression by
allowing imprisonment for printing news about `terrorist
organisations' and raised fears of unjustified prosecution of
journalists who dared to mention the subject. Rüstu Demirkaya, of the
pro-Kurdish news agency Diha, was jailed on 14 June in the eastern
town of Tunceli for `collaborating with the PKK/Kongra-Gel' after a
former militant reportedly accused him of giving the PKK a laptop and
10 blank CDs and telling the party about an ongoing military
operation. He faces up to 12 years in prison.
Three bomb attacks on the far-left daily paper Cumhuriyet on 5, 10
and 11 May caused much damage but no injuries and its journalists
immediately resumed work. Ilyas Aktas, of the far-left fortnightly
Devrimci Demokrasi, was shot and seriously wounded in the
southeastern town of Diyarbakir on 30 March during a demonstration to
honour 14 Kurdish rebels killed by the army a few days earlier. He
died on 14 April.
Police were criticised for failing to help an injured journalist from
the daily Sabah, Aliye Cetinkaya, during a protest in the town of
Konya on 10 February against publication in Europe of cartoons of the
Prophet Mohammed. Demonstrators attacked her because she was not
wearing a headscarf, wore jeans and was chewing gum. She was insulted
and stoned and shoes were thrown at her. Police stood by and
colleagues had to take her from the scene.
But 2006 ended with the good news of the release of two journalists
of the pro-Kurdish news agency Diha, Evrim Dengiz and Nesrin Yazar,
after nine months in prison for `undermining the unity of the state
and territorial integrity.' They had been arrested while reporting on
a demonstration in support of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has
been in prison since 1999.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress