COUNTRY USING COURTS TO CURB FREE EXPRESSION

IFEX, Canada
International Freedom of Expression eXpress
4899/
July 17 2007

Three journalists working at slain editor Hrant Dink’s newspaper are
back in court this week for "insulting Turkishness," a high-profile
example of Turkey continuing to use the judicial system to curb free
expression, report IPS Communication Foundation (BIANET) and other
press freedom groups.

Dink, editor of Armenian-Turkish newspaper "Agos", was prosecuted
under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which makes "insulting
Turkishness" a crime punishable by prison terms, for comments on mass
killings of Armenians a century ago. Dink was later assassinated,
and 14 murder suspects are currently on trial.

Just last week, the Turkey Journalists’ Society Press Freedom Prize
announced it was posthumously awarding one of its press freedom prizes
this year to Dink in the name of the 100 academics, journalist and
writers "who have suffered under Article 301."

Although Dink’s case was dropped, two other "Agos" employees, including
director Arat Dink, Hrant’s son, are in court for republishing an
interview that Hrant gave Reuters news agency last year in which he
recognised the Armenian genocide. Another "Agos" reporter, Aydin Engin,
who criticised the incompetence of the judicial system in handling the
"Agos" trials, is charged with insulting the court. All three face
between six months and three years in prison.

Twelve other cases are currently underway under Article 301. "It has
become obvious that neither the government nor the opposition are
interested in changing controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal
Code, which obstructs freedom of expression and has arguably also
lead to the targeting and later murder of journalist Hrant Dink,"
BIANET says.

According to BIANET’s latest quarterly media report, 132 people
and seven media groups have been tried in court in free expression
related cases from April to June, and it appears there is no sign of
the government letting up on such cases.

Eren Keskin, former president of the Istanbul Branch of the Human
Rights Association (IHD), received a one-year prison sentence last week
for saying "Turkey has a dirty history" and using the term "Kurdistan"
at a human rights panel in 2005. She was accused of "insulting and
degrading the republic." Keskin, a lawyer, faces 12 other trials and
two investigations for her various speeches, articles and interviews.

The Associated Press reports that a music group called Deli ("Crazy")
is facing 18 months in jail for a song they wrote lashing out against
a state exam high school students must take to get into college. They
are being charged with "insulting the state" and will appear in court
on 19 July. "Life should not be a prison because of an exam," go the
lyrics of "OSYM", named after the exam of the same name.

According to BIANET, Taner Akcam, a professor of history at Minnesota
University in the U.S., who had been investigated for his claims of an
Armenian genocide, is taking Article 301 to the European Court of Human
Rights (ECHR) to protest against the law’s threat to academic research.