RSF: ARTICLE 301 IS "ENEMY OF PRESS FREEDOM"
BIA
Feb 14 2008
Turkey
In its annual report for 2008, Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
criticised Article 301 and the nationalist obstruction of press
freedom. The murder of Hrant Dink could have been prevented.
2007 began very badly, with the murder of Turkish-Armenian Agos
newspaper editor Hrant Dink. It was a tough year for press freedom,
with authoritarian behaviour and nationalist violence.
Dink’s murder could have been prevented Hrank Dink was shot dead on 19
January 2007 in front of the Istanbul offices of the privately-owned
bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly magazine Agos he edited. The
killer, O. S., from Trabzon, a bastion of Turkish nationalism, was
arrested hours later and investigations soon showed he had ties to
the security forces, which had been warned several times Dink was
going to be killed.
But officials refused to prosecute the police suspects and evidence
was reportedly destroyed. The trial of the 19 suspects began in
Istanbul in July amid tight police security and because O.S. (17)
was a minor, was held in secret. The second hearing mentioned the
police involvement. The third hearing was on 11 February 2008, and
the next hearing is on 25 February.
Article 301, the enemy of press freedom When the hitman was arrested
he expressed no remorse and said Dink deserved to die for insulting
Turks. Dink had been prosecuted several times for calling the
Ottoman Empire massacre of Armenians "genocide," a term that Turkey
rejects. Article 301 of the criminal code provides for between six
months and three years in prison for anyone "openly denigrating"
the government, courts, police or armed forces.
Dink was given a suspended six-month prison sentence in 2005 under
this article and was prosecuted again in September 2006 for calling
the Armenian massacre "genocide" in an interview with Reuters news
agency. His son Arat and two other Agos staffers were given year-long
suspended prison sentences in October 2007 for reprinting the interview
in the magazine.
Promises of amendment not kept A few days earlier, newly-elected
Turkish President Abdullah Gul told the Council of Europe’s
Parliamentary Assembly that he favoured amending article 301. The EU’s
annual progress report on Turkey’s application to join the EU said very
serious efforts were still needed to improve freedom of expression.
Justice minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said on 6 November the government
would amend article 301 and that the cabinet would give priority to
proposals based on calls from civil society groups. Prime minister
Erdogan made similar promises a year earlier.
The army as a threat to the media Nationalism was behind many attacks
on press freedom. Yasin Yetisgen, owner-editor of the Kurdish
paper Coban Atesi, was thrown in jail for printing an article on
2 August saying the town of Antep was in "northern Kurdistan," an
officially-illegal term. Journalists were several times forbidden to
report on Turkish military operations in Iraqi Kurdistan against PKK
rebel bases, officially so as not to demoralise the population with
"negative" news but in fact to preserve the image of the army.
This desire for control was shown in March when two reports, from the
the military high command and the prime minister’s office, were leaked
to the media. They revealed that media outlets and journalists were
classified as to how far they agreed with government policies and that
official accreditation was used to either exert pressure on a media
outlet or journalist or to reward those that backed the armed forces.
Three French journalists – Guillaume Perrier of Le Monde and two
photographers for the Capa photo agency – were arrested on 24 October
at the Habur border-crossing between Turkey and Iraq for refusing to
show their film to customs officials, who roughed one of them up.
They were held for questioning with no reason given, separated and
interrogated. They were freed by the town prosecutor the next day
but their film and equipent was not returned.
Kurdish media faced obstacles Many Kurdish media outlets were
shut down, sometimes more than once, mainly for supposed "terrorist
propaganda," and most often the newspapers Gundem and Guncel. Gun TV,
broadcasting in the southern region of Diyarbakir and the only station
allowed to put out Kurdish-language programmes, ran into many problems,
including when it broadcast Kurdish songs.
Columnist Aydin Erdogan was dismissed in October by the daily
Cumhuriyet for criticising, during a TV debate on the pro-Kurdish
Roj TV channel, planned constitutional changes and for advocating a
peaceful solution to the Kurdish conflict. He was also not allowed to
present his own books put out by Cumhuriyet Publishing at the Tuyap
book fair as had been planned.