IFEX, Canada
International Freedom of Expression eXpress
March 17 2006

CAPSULE REPORT: Writers and academics favoring EU membership target
of criminal complaints, says CPJ in special report

Country/Topic: Turkey
Date: 16 March 2006
Source: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Person(s):
Target(s):
Type(s) of violation(s):
Urgency: Bulletin
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release:

Turkish Nationalism and the Press

A CPJ special report: Free expression falls victim to EU opponents

New York, March 16, 2006 – Nationalists opposed to Turkey’s
engagement with Europe have sought out sympathetic public prosecutors
across the country to file criminal complaints against journalists,
writers and academics who favor EU membership, a new report by the
Committee to Protect Journalists has found.

Using loosely worded laws that criminalize the denigration of the
Turkish state, its identity and its institutions, conservative
secular nationalists – referred to by some as “the state within the
state” – are challenging writings and public comments on issues they
dislike, including the Kurds, the mass killings of Armenians under
the Ottoman Empire, and the security forces, CPJ found in its special
report, “Nationalism and the Press,” released today.

Five journalists were charged in December 2005 under Article 288 of
the penal code with attempting to influence the outcome of judicial
proceedings through their writings. Four of the five were also
charged under the controversial Article 301 of the code with
insulting “Turkishness,” and if convicted could face prison terms
from six months to 10 years.

Senior Editor Robert Mahoney attended the unruly opening of the
journalists’ trial on February 7 in Istanbul where hundreds of riot
police ringed the court room and the judge adjourned the case after
two hours. He interviewed several of the journalists standing trial,
government officials and activists for the report.

Since Turkey’s penal code was overhauled in 2005, cases have been
brought against 29 journalists under Article 301, according to the
local press freedom organization Bia.

For 40 years, Turkey has been forging closer political, economic, and
social ties with Europe, writes Mahoney. But the opening last October
of formal accession negotiations with Brussels has galvanized those
who feel Turkey has gone far enough in reforming itself along Western
lines to pass the EU membership test.

The prosecution of the five journalists is scheduled to reconvene on
April 11.

To read the report:
-06/turkey_3-06.html

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