AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: TURKEY: JOURNALIST TARGETED YET AGAIN

Amnesty International USA
Sept 26 2006

Public Statement

AI Index: EUR 44/017/2006 (Public)
News Service No: 252
26 September 2006

Amnesty International is dismayed at today’s news that yet another
case has been opened against journalist Hrant Dink on charges of
"denigrating Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal
Code. The organization considers that this prosecution is part of an
emerging pattern of harassment against the journalist exercising his
right to freedom of expression — a right which Turkey, as a State
Party to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, has a legal obligation to uphold.

The latest charge against Hrant Dink was brought following a statement
he made to Reuters news agency, in which he reportedly said of
massacres of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire, "Of course I’m
saying it’s a genocide, because its consequences show it to be true
and label it so. We see that people who had lived on this soil for
4000 years were exterminated by these events." Amnesty International
is particularly concerned at this latest prosecution, the third
against Hrant Dink on charges under Article 301, because it seems to
constitute a pattern of judicial harassment against the writer for
peacefully expressing his dissenting opinion. Furthermore, he has
already been given a six-month suspended prison sentence following
an October 2005 conviction on charges of "denigrating Turkishness"
(upheld by the Court of Appeal in July 2006), and therefore if found
guilty again on the same charge would be imprisoned. Should he be,
Amnesty International would consider him a prisoner of conscience.

Amnesty International considers this latest prosecution to be
particularly disappointing following the welcome acquittal four
days ago of another writer, novelist Elif Safak, on charges under
Article 301 relating to statements made by characters in her novel
The Bastard of Istanbul. The organization had seen this as a positive
step for freedom of expression in Turkey but fears this acquittal
may prove to be the exception rather than the rule and demonstrates
yet again the failure of certain members of the Turkish judiciary and
prosecution to internalize international law, as required by Article
90 of the Turkish constitution. The organization reiterates its call
for Article 301 to be abolished in its entirety, thereby putting an
end to arbitrary implementation of this ill-defined law.

Finally, Amnesty International notes that this prosecution reportedly
arises from a complaint lodged by elements of civil society opposed to
the abolition of Article 301, who have lodged similar complaints in
the past seeking to secure such prosecutions and who have repeatedly
staged provocative and sometimes violent protests at trials, creating
a threatening atmosphere in the courtroom. The organization calls
on the Turkish authorities to ensure that all necessary measures are
taken to ensure the protection both of the defendants, their lawyers
and supporters in such cases, and of the course of justice itself.

For further information about Amnesty International’s concerns
regarding Article 301 please see Turkey: Article 301: How the law on
"denigrating Turkishness" is an insult to free expression (AI Index:
EUR 44/003/2006).