TURKISH COURT DROPS STATE SLANDER CHARGES AGAINST 4 JOURNALISTS
Chris Buell
JURIST
April 11 2006
[JURIST] A Turkish court on Tuesday dropped criminal charges against
four journalists over reports critical of a court opinion [JURIST
report] last fall, but the court upheld charges against a fifth
journalist. The court dismissed charges against the four because it
held that prosecutors failed to file charges within the two months
following publication of the stories. The court upheld charges against
Radikal columnist Murat Belge. Belge could face up to 10 years in
prison if convicted of the charge under Turkish Penal Code Article 301
[Amnesty International backgrounder], which criminalizes insulting
“state judicial institutions.”
The five journalists were accused [JURIST report] of publishing stories
critical of a court ruling that would have banned a conference on
Turkey’s involvement in the alleged genocide of its minority Armenian
population under the Ottoman Empire. Similar charges against novelist
Orhan Pamuk were dropped [JURIST report] earlier this year. Turkey
[JURIST news archive] has been under pressure from the EU to improve
its freedom of expression laws as part of its bid for EU membership.
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From: Baghdasarian