Turkish Daily News, Turkey
Dec 6 2007
Freedom of press in Turkey faces obstacles despite improvement
Thursday, December 6, 2007
ISTANBUL – Turksih Daily News
Incidents of violence against journalists and legal harassment of
the media in Turkey have dropped significantly since the 1990s, but a
recent study has revealed that there are still obstacles to freedom
of press.
`Goodbye to Freedom?’ is the survey on media freedom across
Europe published by the Association of European Journalists (AEJ),
covering 20 countries in eastern and western Europe. The survey
highlights evidence that freedom of press in Europe is threatened by
restrictive laws, hidden political and commercial agendas, threats of
imprisonment, intimidation and in some cases, murder. The survey
investigates the situation in 19 countries as well as the European
Union. The Turkey section was written by Doðan Týlýç, AEJ’s first
vice president.
`Despite the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government’s
promises that restrictive laws will be repealed or eased, the freedom
of journalists to report fully and objectively on the nation’s
affairs is still seriously limited by legal and other obstacles,’
according to the survey.
The murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, editor of the
weekly Armenian-language newspaper Agos last Jebruary outside his
Istanbul office, and the attempt to prosecute the Nobel Literature
Prize-winner Orhan Pamuk are given as examples to `the twin dangers
of nationalist violence against liberal-minded writers and of
criminal prosecution through Turkey’s archaic laws banning insults
against Turkish identity or state institutions.’
`In 2006 a total of 293 people faced legal action based on the
country’s illiberal laws on free expression,’ the survey revealed.
`In some cases the army itself has brought prosecutions against
journalists who investigated or criticized the military’s involvement
in politics. Turkey’s criminal laws are out of line with its Council
of Europe obligations and incompatible with press freedom.’
The survey also criticizes attempts to censor Internet sites. `Some
Turkish courts have in some cases responded to allegations of
cyber-crime by banning access to whole Web sites, even when the
complaint concerns only a small segment of the site in question,’
according to the survey. It cites the example of the video-sharing
site YouTube being temporarily blocked in Turkey last September by a
court order over a video allegedly insulting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,
the founder of the modern Turkish Republic.
`Despite the diversity and vigor evident in the media, Turkish
journalists face an array of significant obstacles to media freedom
and independence,’ Týlýç wrote in the report. `Greater solidarity is
needed among Turkish journalists, especially to organise strong
professional and trade union bodies which can effectively push for
better conditions and defend the media against undue political and
commercial influences,’ he added.
The AEJ is an independent, self-funding association for journalists
in Europe with more than 1000 individual members in over 20 national
sections. It promotes professional contacts across Europe’s borders,
open debate on European issues, and the freedom and independence of
media and journalists in Europe.