BIA, Turkey
Feb 14 2008

RSF: Article 301 is `Enemy of Press Freedom’

In its annual report for 2008, Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
criticised Article 301 and the nationalist obstruction of press
freedom. The murder of Hrant Dink could have been prevented.

Rsf
14-02-2008

2007 began very badly, with the murder of Turkish-Armenian Agos
newspaper editor Hrant Dink. It was a tough year for press freedom,
with authoritarian behaviour and nationalist violence.

Dink’s murder could have been prevented
Hrank Dink was shot dead on 19 January 2007 in front of the Istanbul
offices of the privately-owned bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly
magazine Agos he edited. The killer, O. S., from Trabzon, a bastion
of Turkish nationalism, was arrested hours later and investigations
soon showed he had ties to the security forces, which had been warned
several times Dink was going to be killed.

But officials refused to prosecute the police suspects and evidence
was reportedly destroyed. The trial of the 19 suspects began in
Istanbul in July amid tight police security and because O.S. (17) was
a minor, was held in secret. The second hearing mentioned the police
involvement. The third hearing was on 11 February 2008, and the next
hearing is on 25 February.

Article 301, the enemy of press freedom
When the hitman was arrested he expressed no remorse and said Dink
deserved to die for insulting Turks. Dink had been prosecuted several
times for calling the Ottoman Empire massacre of Armenians
`genocide,’ a term that Turkey rejects. Article 301 of the criminal
code provides for between six months and three years in prison for
anyone `openly denigrating’ the government, courts, police or armed
forces.

Dink was given a suspended six-month prison sentence in 2005 under
this article and was prosecuted again in September 2006 for calling
the Armenian massacre `genocide’ in an interview with Reuters news
agency. His son Arat and two other Agos staffers were given year-long
suspended prison sentences in October 2007 for reprinting the
interview in the magazine.

Promises of amendment not kept
A few days earlier, newly-elected Turkish President Abdullah Gül told
the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly that he favoured
amending article 301. The EU’s annual progress report on Turkey’s
application to join the EU said very serious efforts were still
needed to improve freedom of expression.

Justice minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said on 6 November the government
would amend article 301 and that the cabinet would give priority to
proposals based on calls from civil society groups. Prime minister
Erdogan made similar promises a year earlier.

The army as a threat to the media
Nationalism was behind many attacks on press freedom. Yasin Yetisgen,
owner-editor of the Kurdish paper Coban Atesi, was thrown in jail for
printing an article on 2 August saying the town of Antep was in
`northern Kurdistan,’ an officially-illegal term. Journalists were
several times forbidden to report on Turkish military operations in
Iraqi Kurdistan against PKK rebel bases, officially so as not to
demoralise the population with `negative’ news but in fact to
preserve the image of the army.

This desire for control was shown in March when two reports, from the
the military high command and the prime minister’s office, were
leaked to the media. They revealed that media outlets and journalists
were classified as to how far they agreed with government policies
and that official accreditation was used to either exert pressure on
a media outlet or journalist or to reward those that backed the armed
forces.

Three French journalists – Guillaume Perrier of Le Monde and two
photographers for the Capa photo agency – were arrested on 24 October
at the Habur border-crossing between Turkey and Iraq for refusing to
show their film to customs officials, who roughed one of them up.
They were held for questioning with no reason given, separated and
interrogated. They were freed by the town prosecutor the next day but
their film and equipent was not returned.

Kurdish media faced obstacles
Many Kurdish media outlets were shut down, sometimes more than once,
mainly for supposed `terrorist propaganda,’ and most often the
newspapers Gündem and Güncel. Gün TV, broadcasting in the southern
region of Diyarbakir and the only station allowed to put out
Kurdish-language programmes, ran into many problems, including when
it broadcast Kurdish songs.

Columnist Aydin Erdogan was dismissed in October by the daily
Cumhuriyet for criticising, during a TV debate on the pro-Kurdish Roj
TV channel, planned constitutional changes and for advocating a
peaceful solution to the Kurdish conflict. He was also not allowed to
present his own books put out by Cumhuriyet Publishing at the Tuyap
book fair as had been planned. (RSF/AG)

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