Reporters without borders (press release), France
June 15 2007
Murdered newspaper editor’s son and three other journalists charged
with `insulting Turkish identity’
Reporters Without Borders condemns the decision to prosecute Arat
Dink, the son of slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, and
three other journalists employed by his newspaper, the weekly Agos,
for `insulting Turkish identity’ under article 301 of the criminal
code.
The Istanbul prosecutor’s office requested a six-month prison
sentence for Arat Dink when he appeared in court yesterday in
Istanbul as his father’s successor as editor of Agos. The three other
Agos journalists charged with him are Serkis Seropyan, Aydin Engin
and Karin Karakashli. Dink’s father was gunned down outside the
newspaper on 19 January.
`Once again we have to denounce the use of article 301 of the
criminal code, which is a threat to freedom of expression,’ Reporters
Without Borders said. `A prosecution was also initiated against Erdal
Dogal, one of the Dink family’s lawyers on 7 June.’
Agos’ staff is being prosecuted for republishing an interview Hrant
Dink gave to Reuters in July 2006 in which he referred to the 1915
Armenian genocide and urged Armenians `to turn now towards the new
blood of independent Armenia, which alone is capable of freeing them
from the weight of the Diaspora.’
Prior to his murder, Hrant Dink received a six-month suspended
sentence for these comments, which the newspaper reproduced as part
of a series entitled `The Armenian Identity.’
The trial of 18 people accused of participating in Hrant Dink’s
murder is due to open in Istanbul on 2 July.
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