9 June 2006

Alert

Court acquits fifth journalist who criticised conference ban


Incident details

Murat Belge

journalist(s)

acquitted

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(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has hailed an Istanbul court's decision on 8 June 2006 to acquit Murat Belge, a columnist with the daily "Radikal", of criticising a judicial ban on a conference about the Armenian genocide, for which he had faced a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

"Belge's acquittal is good news for press freedom in Turkey," the organisation said. "The judges recognised that his criticism of the judicial authorities was not a crime. As a result, he has avoided an extremely severe sentence that would have been a disgrace."

The court dismissed all the charges against Belge, who criticised the ban in two articles in September 2005. Similar charges against four other journalists were dropped in April.



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More on this case

Editor may face new prosecution for referring to Armenian genocide 19 July 2006 Appeals court upholds suspended prison sentence against Hrant Dink 13 July 2006 Editor's trial adjourned until December as judicial harassment continues 6 July 2006 Proceedings against Orhan Pamuk dropped; PEN calls for end to all trials of writers 25 January 2006

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Turkey
Turkey

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