8 February 2006
IFEX MEMBERS MONITOR DEFAMATION TRIALS
While free expression advocates hailed a Turkish court's decision in January to throw out defamation charges against author Orhan Pamuk, a dozen other court cases involving journalists and publishers who face similar charges are ongoing. This month, IFEX members are helping to focus international attention on their cases by sending observers to the trials.
Norwegian PEN has sent a delegation to Istanbul to monitor the trials of individuals including Hrant Dink, the editor of an Armenian magazine, and five journalists accused of "interfering" with the judiciary for criticising attempts to ban a conference on Armenians.
The trials of the five journalists are also being observed by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), who has called for the charges against Murat Belge, Haluk Sahin, Erol Katircioglu, Ismet Berkan and Hasan Cemal to be dropped.
All are being charged under Article 288 of Turkey's penal code with attempting to influence the outcome of a trial through their writings.
All except Berkan also face prosecution under Article 301 for publicly denigrating "Turkishness" and the institutions of the Turkish state. If convicted, they could face prison terms of six months to 10 years.
The charges stem from the journalists' columns in the newspapers "Radikal" and "Milliyet", which strongly criticised Turkish court rulings banning an academic conference last year on the killing of Armenians during the last days of the Ottoman Empire.
Four publishers are also due in court for allegedly violating Article 301 of the penal code, says the International Publishers Association (IPA).
Ahmet Onal, owner of the Peri publishing house, is being charged for publishing a book by Murat Coskun entitled "The language of suffering: Woman". Fatih Tas is charged with insulting the Turkish military for publishing a translation of a book by John Tirman, entitled: "Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America's Arms". The book documents human rights abuses committed by the Turkish military against Kurds.
Abdullah Yildiz of Literatür publishers faces several years in jail for publishing "The Witches of Smyrna" by Greek writer Mara Meimaridi. The novel is set during the last years of Ottoman rule in Izmir (Smyrna), and in some passages describes the city's Turkish quarters as dirty. Mr. Yildiz has been charged with "denigrating the Turkish national identity."
Ragip Zarakolu, co-founder and owner of Belge publishing, is charged with "insulting and undermining the State" for publishing a book by Dora Sakayan entitled: "Garabed Hacheryan's Izmir Journal: An Armenian Doctor's Experiences" and a book by George Jerjian called "History Will Free Us All - Turkish-Armenian Conciliation".
Last month, free expression advocates scored a victory when an Istanbul court dismissed charges against Orhan Pamuk. Pamuk had been charged with offending the Turkish state after he was quoted in a Swiss magazine as saying "One million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in [Turkey], and nobody but me dares talk about it."
His trial drew widespread international attention and led senior EU officials to criticise Turkey for failing to adequately reform criminal defamation laws (see http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/71817/).
According to International PEN, roughly 60 writers, publishers and journalists have been brought before the courts in Turkey in the past year, many charged under Article 301.
The Article states that "A person who explicitly insults being a Turk, the Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly, shall be imposed to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of six months to three years."
Visit these links:
- Norwegian PEN: http://www.norskpen.no/en/
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/mideast/Turkey06feb06na.html
- IPA: http://www.ipa-uie.org/
- International PEN: http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/index.php?pid=33&aid=427
- Campaign Against Article 301: http://www.bianet.org/2006/02/01_eng/news74199.htm
- Antenna: http://www.antenna-tr.org/index.asp?lgg=en
- Human Rights Watch Backgrounder on Turkey: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/18/turkey12220.htm
- EU Progress Report on Turkey: http://tinyurl.com/byqwy
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