Freedom of speech regresses in Turkey, rights group says

Agence France Presse — English
November 3, 2006 Friday 5:43 PM GMT

Freedom of speech deteriorated in Turkey, a European Union candidate
nation, in the first nine months of this year compared with 2005,
the country’s main human rights watchdog said Friday.

The assessment came days before the European Commission — the EU’s
executive arm — issues what is expected to be a critical report on
Ankara’s progress towards membership.

"There has been no improvement with respect to basic rights and
liberties in the first nine months of 2006. In fact, there has been
deterioration in some areas such as freedom of expression," Yusuf
Alatas, chairman of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) told
a news conference here.

An IHD report showed 261 people indicted for expressing their opinions,
up from 192 charged in the whole of last year.

Courts had sentenced 134 people by the end of September this year
while 59 people were convicted in 2005.

Turkey’s obligation to guarantee freedom of expression is expected to
figure high in the European Commission report to be released Wednesday.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has for months called for the
modification or scrapping of Article 301 of Turkey’s penal code to
guarantee freedom of speech.

Dozens of intellectuals, among them 2006 Nobel literature laureate
Orhan Pamuk, have been brought to court under the article mainly for
contesting the official line on the World War I massacres of Armenians
which Ankara rejects as constituting genocide.

Article 301 envisages up to three years in jail "for denigrating
Turkish national identity" and insulting state institutions.

No one has yet been imprisoned under the provision, but the appeals
court in July confirmed the suspended six-month sentence of a
Turkish-Armenian journalist, setting a precedent for pending cases
against some 70 intellectuals.

Thomas Hammerberg, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for Human
Rights, said here Friday that he had received a pledge from Turkish
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul that Ankara would take steps very soon
to rectify the situation.

"I was informed at the highest level that mistakes have been made
in the implementation of Article 301 and that these mistakes of
implementation will be corrected," Hammarberg told a news conference
after three days of talks with Turkish officials.

"I welcome the message I got that this will end soon," he said.

Hammarberg added that Gul had not specified how the government would
tackle the thorny issue.

The Turkish government has so far refrained from openly committing
itself to making a move on the controversial article, but has said
it was open to proposals to amend it.

The European Commission report is also expected to criticize the
slowing pace of reforms aimed at easing Turkey’s entry to the
25-nation bloc and its failure to honour its obligations to Cyprus
under a customs union agrement.

Turkey began membership talks with the European Union last year amid
warnings that the country still has much to do to prove its full
commitment to democracy and human rights.