ANKARA TO AMEND ‘INSULTING TURKISHNESS’ LAW
AP
November 07, 2007
FREE SPEECH IN TURKEY?
Turkey has announced it plans to amend the notorious Article 301
which limits freedom of speech and was used to prosecute writer Orhan
Pamuk. The move comes in response to a damning report from Brussels
on Turkey’s path to EU membership.
Turkey’s road to the EU may involve improving freedom of speech.
Turkey is planning to amend a heavily criticized law limiting freedom
of expression, apparently in response to European Union pressure.
Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said Tuesday that the government
had almost finished preparatory work on reforming the penal code’s
notorious Article 301, under which people can be prosecuted for
"insulting Turkishness."
"In the coming days we may present the bill connected with 301
to parliament," Sahin told reporters, without going into detail
about how the law might be reformed. The measure is likely to pass
in parliament, where Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling
Justice and Development Party has a majority.
Under the law, which has been a stumbling block in Turkey’s path to
EU membership, those who denigrate Turkey or insult its institutions
can be sentenced to up to three years in prison. The notorious law has
been used in the past to prosecute intellectuals and journalists who
have spoken out about the 1915 Armenian massacre, most famously Nobel
Prize laureate Orhan Pamuk (more…). The ethnic Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink, who was murdered in January outside his Istanbul office
(more…), was also prosecuted under the law. His murder sparked a
debate on freedom of expression in Turkey.
The announcement came just hours after the European Union presented its
annual report on Turkey’s progress towards EU membership, in which
it said Turkey must make "significant further efforts" on freedom
of expression.
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"It is not acceptable that writers, journalists, academics and other
intellectuals … are prosecuted for simply expressing a critical
but completely non-violent opinion," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli
Rehn said.
He made clear that the repeal of what he termed the "infamous Article
301" was a top priority, recommending that the EU should not extend
accession negotiations to the key policy area of justice and human
rights until the article had been changed.
The Commission report also criticized the pace of reforms in Turkey,
which it said had slowed since 2005. Rehn likewise pleaded for a
political solution to the ongoing conflict (more…) with the Kurdish
PKK rebels in northern Iraq.
Turkey began accession talks with the EU in 2005. However the bloc
suspended talks on eight of 35 policy areas in December 2006, after
Ankara refused to open its ports and airports to traffic from EU
member Cyprus.