TURKISH FREEDOMS REFORM CRITICISED AS INADEQUATE

EuroNews, France
April 30 2008

Turkey’s writers and political activists say an attempt by parliament
to increase freedom of speech in the country does not go far enough.

The crime of "insulting Turkishness" is being removed from the penal
code after being used to prosecute hundreds of writers. However Turkish
deputies have opted to keep the punishment of up to two years in jail
for anyone who insults Turkey as a nation. Parliament voted by five
to one in favour of the revision. Only the Nationalists were strongly
against it, accusing the government of pandering to the European Union.

The reaction on the streets was mixed: "This should have been done a
while ago in a democratic country," said one man. "I think there could
still be some abuses under the new article, given the geopolitical
position of our country" said another man.

The European Union has welcomed the change in the law as a step
forward in Turkey’s commitment to political reform.

Political Analyst, Bahedir Kaleagasi said: "Most of the cases, most
of the investigations against intellectuals, ended with no punishment
anyway, but the fact that the article existed, and the way it was
interpreted by some prosecutors, has created a certain pressure,
which is why a change was required, addressing really cases where
an institution is insulted rather than an intangible concept such
as Turkishness."

However, thousands of people have been taken to court in the past
five years, and 745 people have been convicted. There have also been
wider consequences. Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was shot
dead after being found guilty of insulting Turkishness by writing an
article about Armenian genocide.

The Nobel Literature Laureate Orhan Pamuk was also charged for the
same crime, after the law was introduced in 2005, but for him the
case was dropped.