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EU SAYS TURKEY MUST IMPROVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH-TV
San Antonio Express, TX
Oct 6 2007
Writer Orhan Pamuk was tried last year for telling a Swiss newspaper
that 30,000 Kurds had perished in Turkey in recent decades.
Reuters photo: dovegreyreader.typepad.com Turkey must move ahead with
laws ensuring freedoms of religion and expression and prosecuting
writers for criticising Turkish identity is unacceptable, a senior
EU official told Turkish television.
Turkey has said it remains fully committed to joining the European
Union, but key reforms such as an amendment or withdrawal of
article 301, which can be used to prosecute writers for "insulting
Turkishness", are not likely to be passed before an EU progress report
in November.
"It is a human and moral issue. It is not acceptable that writers
like Orhan Pamuk and Elif Safak are prosecuted based on this article,"
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told Turkish NTVMSNBC.
Before the case against him was dropped, Pamuk was tried in Turkey
last year for telling a Swiss newspaper that 1 million Armenians had
died in Turkey during World War One and 30,000 Kurds had perished in
recent decades.
Charges against novelist Safak were also dropped last year.
Opponents of the law also say Turkish Armenian editor and journalist
Hrant Dink was murdered last year after being singled out because of
his prosecution under the law.
Recent efforts by Turkey's ruling party to change the country's
constitution also should not delay reforms in expanding freedoms of
expression and religion, Rehn added.
"The changes (to the constitution) can be a method for expanding
fundamental rights and freedoms. But the preparations should not
delay the realisation of freedoms of expression or religion," he said.
Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has said previously the new
constitution will strengthen individual rights and freedoms, but
Turkish officials say article 301 will not be revised or overwritten
in the new document.
Lack of attention to laws regarding freedom of speech by the ruling
AK Party have led to criticism that the party is being selective in
its reform process.
San Antonio Express, TX
Oct 6 2007
Writer Orhan Pamuk was tried last year for telling a Swiss newspaper
that 30,000 Kurds had perished in Turkey in recent decades.
Reuters photo: dovegreyreader.typepad.com Turkey must move ahead with
laws ensuring freedoms of religion and expression and prosecuting
writers for criticising Turkish identity is unacceptable, a senior
EU official told Turkish television.
Turkey has said it remains fully committed to joining the European
Union, but key reforms such as an amendment or withdrawal of
article 301, which can be used to prosecute writers for "insulting
Turkishness", are not likely to be passed before an EU progress report
in November.
"It is a human and moral issue. It is not acceptable that writers
like Orhan Pamuk and Elif Safak are prosecuted based on this article,"
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told Turkish NTVMSNBC.
Before the case against him was dropped, Pamuk was tried in Turkey
last year for telling a Swiss newspaper that 1 million Armenians had
died in Turkey during World War One and 30,000 Kurds had perished in
recent decades.
Charges against novelist Safak were also dropped last year.
Opponents of the law also say Turkish Armenian editor and journalist
Hrant Dink was murdered last year after being singled out because of
his prosecution under the law.
Recent efforts by Turkey's ruling party to change the country's
constitution also should not delay reforms in expanding freedoms of
expression and religion, Rehn added.
"The changes (to the constitution) can be a method for expanding
fundamental rights and freedoms. But the preparations should not
delay the realisation of freedoms of expression or religion," he said.
Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has said previously the new
constitution will strengthen individual rights and freedoms, but
Turkish officials say article 301 will not be revised or overwritten
in the new document.
Lack of attention to laws regarding freedom of speech by the ruling
AK Party have led to criticism that the party is being selective in
its reform process.