Toledo Blade, OH
Feb 4 2006
Hrant Dink
by Jack Lessenberry
We talk a lot about freedom of the press in this country, something
that is guaranteed us by the First Amendment to the Constitution. But
there are many journalists around the world who are mourning a man
who was a far more courageous advocate for press freedom than any
American I know.
His name was Hrant Dink. As far as I know he never visited this
country. Matter of fact, I’m not sure he ever left his native Turkey.
Yet he symbolized what our First Amendment is supposed to be about.
He believed anybody has the right to say whatever they believe – and
that no government has the right to shut any free citizen up.
In Turkey, it is illegal to tell the truth about the world’s first
genocide, the murder of 1.5 million Armenians by Turks during World
War I. Mr. Dink, the editor of a small independent newspaper he
started himself, insisted on telling the truth about that, though he
repeatedly was fined and jailed. But here’s something even more
incredible. France has been discussing making it against the law to
deny that the Armenian genocide occurred. Last fall, Mr. Dink
declared that if France did so, he would rush to that country – and
deny that the Armenian genocide happened!
"Then we can watch both the Turkish Republic and the French
government race against each other to condemn me. We can watch to see
which will throw me into jail first," Mr. Dink said, adding, "What
the peoples need is dialogue, and all these laws do is harm such
dialogue."
He had no First Amendment to protect him – and yet he was willing to
risk his life for freedom of speech. Then on Jan. 19, Mr. Dink, who
was 52 and had a wife and two children, was shot in the back of the
head by a teenage dropout who, police said, was told to do it by an
ultranationalist.
More than 100,000 people showed up at his funeral. Many wore buttons
saying, "We are all Hrant Dink." Think of what a better world this
would be if it had more journalists who were as courageous as was he.
Anyone with a concern about fairness or accuracy in The Blade is
invited to write me, c/o The Blade; 541 N. Superior St., Toledo,
43660, or at my Detroit office: 189 Manoogian Hall, Wayne State
University, Detroit, MI 48202; call me, at 1-888-746-8610 or E-Mail
me at [email protected]. I cannot promise to address every question in
the newspaper, but I do promise that everyone who contacts me with a
serious question will get a personal reply.
Jack Lessenberry, a member of the journalism faculty at Wayne State
University in Detroit and The Blade’s ombudsman, writes on issues and
people in Michigan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
