FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Freedom of expression is closely related to other civil and political rights – the rights to hold particular beliefs, thoughts or issues of conscience; to adhere to a particular religion; or to associate or assemble with others sharing similar beliefs. These rights all combine to fulfil the vital role of allowing individuals to realise their full human potential.

Turkey is committed under international law to secure the right to freedom of expression and has instituted numerous reforms in this area in relation to the EU accession process. Yet despite the abundance of new legislation, there remain serious concerns about censorship. In 2005 this widespread apprehension proved to be well-founded. In fact prosecutions against publishers, human rights defenders, writers, artists, and journalists increased in 2005.

If Turkey is to adequately protect the right to freedom of expression, additional reforms are needed to bring legislation in line with international standards. For example, Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code has been used frequently to prosecute human rights defenders, journalists and other members of civil society peacefully expressing their dissenting opinion.

Freedom of expression, association, thought, conscience, belief and religion continue to be priority areas for our work in Turkey. Our fact-finding mission to Istanbul, Diyarbakir, Tunceli and Batman in south-east Turkey in April found that in spite of numerous EU-related reforms, there remain grave concerns about the ‘chilling effect' of Turkey's state practices surrounding the media and human rights defenders. The mission's findings were published in September (see ‘Dissenting Voices: Freedom of Expression and Association in Turkey', Resources page 52).

We pursued these findings with a further mission in July, conducted jointly with BHRC and the EU-Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC) focused on linguistic rights enjoyed by minorities in the region and on the status of the Kurdish language. The mission found further evidence that EU-reforms were not being implemented on the ground, and concluded that lifting restrictions on education and broadcasting in the Kurdish language would be essential to ensuring a multicultural, pluralist and ultimately peaceful country. The mission's findings were published in September (See ‘Recognition of Linguistic Rights? The Impact of Pro-EU Reforms in Turkey', Resources page 52).

Our most detailed report yet on the issue, ‘Freedom of Expression and of Association in Turkey' was published in November. The report concludes that much remains to be done before Turkey could meet European standards on civil and political rights.

As well as examining the overall practice of violations of freedom of expression and of association, our casework on individual cases included:

• Ünsal Öztürk , the owner of an independent publishing firm in Turkey who was convicted by several State Security Courts for publishing propaganda against the ‘indivisible unity' of the state and sentenced to 17-months imprisonment and a fine. In October 2005, the ECtHR upheld our case that his rights to freedom of expression and to due process had been violated

• Noyan Tapan Ltd is an independent news agency and television company that experienced harassment and intimidation from authorities. We have continued working on our case alleging violations of freedom of expression, which in 2004 set a precedent by being the very first ECtHR case against Armenia to be declared admissible

• Ragip Zarakolu and Fikret Baskaya are repectively a publisher and a leading intellectual who published separate articles expressing their beliefs on issues including self-determination and secularism. Both men have been the subject of numerous prosecutions for their beliefs. We observed the trials of both men in March to monitor adherence to fair trial standards, and published a report, ‘Freedom of Expression at Risk: Writers on Trial in Turkey' in March 2005

• Orhan Pamuk is an internationally renowned novelist who was put on trial in Turkey for allegedly ‘insulting Turkey's national character'. He was quoted in a Swiss newspaper as saying that only he had dared to say that Turkey killed 30,000 Kurds and a million Armenians. We observed the first hearing in his trial in December to monitor compliance with international human rights law. The charges were subsequently dropped.

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