CARTOONS ILLUSTRATE LACK OF PRESS FREEDOM IN TURKEY

Radio Netherlands

ionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/region/netherlands /090127-Turkey-cartoonists
Jan 26 2009
Netherlands

In Turkey, prosecution for insulting the nation is almost an
occupational hazard for journalists and cartoonists. A number of
provocative Turkish cartoons are on display at an exhibition in
the Netherlands. Afterwards the organisers hope an internet auction
will raise money to cover the legal costs for these controversial
court cases.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a poor sense of
humour. In recent years, he has taken many a cartoonist to court. But
the deluge of court cases has not stopped the illustrators from mocking
the lack of press freedom in the country. In one cartoon, Sefer Selvi
draws the prime minister, dressed in hunting gear, shooting at one
of the newspapers he has taken to court. His dog tears up another copy.

"As soon as cartoonists raise taboos like the division between church
and state, the army, the Armenian genocide and Ataturk, the founder
of the republic of Turkey – the government intervenes,"

says freelance journalist Mehmet Ulger, chairman of Roportaj, a
Dutch organisation promoting press freedom in Turkey. He organised
the exhibition The Power of the Imagination, which opens in the
Press Museum in Amsterdam on 29 January. The murder of publicist and
journalist Hrant Dink in 2007 was reason to breathe new life into
the organisation, set up in 1996 as a bridge between journalists in
the Netherlands and Turkey.

"If you want to write news, then you have to keep inside the line"

Keeping inside the line On his computer, there’s a cartoon by Sefer
Selvi in which Prime Minister Erdogan paints a circle around a
dumbfounded journalist, saying: "If you want to write news, then you
have to keep inside the line". Mr Ulger: "Since 2004 Turkey has had
media legislation guaranteeing freedom of the press, as part of the
deal for Turkey’s accession to the European Union. But press freedom
has only improved on paper. Turkey is one of the few countries to
protect sources by law. But this doesn’t happen in practice. Even
the prime minister takes journalists to court."

Dutch censorship There have been cases in the Netherlands in which
press freedom has come under pressure. In April last year, Dutch Prime
Minister Jan Peter Balkenende demanded rectification when an imaginary
speech by him on Islam was printed in weekly magazine Opinio. In May
2008, a Dutch cartoonist with the pseudonym Gregorius Nekschot spent
the night in a cell for allegedly discriminating against Muslims in
his cartoons. Mr Ulger was surprised by the events.

"I don’t agree with the tenor of the cartoons, but Nekschot has the
right to draw what he likes."

Recalcitrant

More from NRC Handelsblad International Last year, charges were brought
against Turkish journalists and cartoonists 190 times. As a result the
media are cautious about what they publish, otherwise they risk losing
government advertising, the right to accreditation or a press card
and being investigated. Only a few media become recalcitrant. Mr Ulger:

"There is a lot of self-censorship, but now and then risks are
taken. If there is a lot of publicity around a case, the authorities
do not intervene straight away. Sometimes a year goes by before action
is taken."

The Power of the imagination exhibition can be seen from 30 January
until 8 March in the Press Museum in Amsterdam. During the opening
on Thursday 29 January, Dutch cartoonist Jos Collignon debates with
his Turkish colleague Guneri Icoglu, who was once sentenced to eight
months in prison for his cartoons.