ANKARA: Two Journalists Investigated Under 301

TWO JOURNALISTS INVESTIGATED UNDER 301

BÝA, Turkey
posted Aug 16 2007

Article 301 continues to haunt journalists in Turkey. Radikal newspaper
writers Magden and Turker are both under investigation for degrading
the states armed forces.

Two journalists of the "Radikal" newspaper, Perihan Magden and Yildirim
Turker, are being investigated under the charge of "degrading the
state’s armed forces" (Article 301).

Magden: "Creating dislike for military service"

On 29 June, prosecutor Ali Cakir in Bagcilar, Istanbul, who had
conducted an investigation of Magden for an article entitled "State,
you are painted all over tonight", had dismissed proceedings against
the writer.

Magden had criticised the fact that there had been a publishing and
broadcasting embargo on the find of a stock of ammunition in a house
in Umraniye, Istanbul. She is also being investigated for "creating
dislike for the military service" in the same article.

Turker: Indifference towards racism

Following a complaint by one Recep Akkus, journalist Yildirim Turker
is also being investigated under Article 301/2.

In his article published on 8 July 2007 in the Radikal 2 Supplement,
entitled "Invisible Attack", Yildirim had written about the
indifference of state authorities and the media towards racism in
the period leading up to journalist Hrant Dink’s murder.

The article ended:

"The whole of society must react when, not 20 or 30, but even one
person uses racist, discriminatory, threatening language. We have to
look at the closeness of these disordered nationalist militia and the
state and the Republican-Kemalist-theorists. Armenians are frightened
and uneasy. How do you feel?"

–Boundary_(ID_4+jFZSPYUS3DZYuWRDMXFA )–