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Dozens of Kurdish journalists face terrorism charges in Turkey
Constanze Letsch, Istanbul and Luke Harding Guardian. Monday 11 September
DATELINE: 11/9/12
The biggest media trial in Turkey's history has begun in what human rights groups say is an attempt by the government to intimidate the press and punish pro-Kurdish activists. A total of 44 Kurdish journalists appeared in court in Istanbul on various terrorism charges, including accusations that they have supported the KCK, an illegal pan-Kurdish movement that includes the PKK, the armed Kurdistan Workers' party. Of those, 36 have been in pre-trial detention since December.
The hearing was delayed after the defendants made an attempt to defend themselves in Kurdish, their mother language, a request denied by the judge. Twelve of the defendants are said to have led a terrorist organisation and 32 are accused of being members of a terrorist organisation. Prosecutors have demanded prison sentences ranging from seven and a half to 22 and a half years.
The contentious case comes amid an escalation of Turkey's 28-year-old Kurdish insurgency, with renewed clashes between the PKK and Turkish security forces. Over the past 14 months, the country has seen its worst violence since the PKK's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, was captured and jailed in 1999. Since June 2011, at least 708 people have been killed, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. The victims include 405 PKK fighters, 209 soldiers and police, and 84 civilians, it said.
Meanwhile, a peaceful initiative by Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) to improve Kurdish rights has fizzled out. Instead, thousands of non-violent Kurdish politicians and sympathisers have been arrested and charged with terrorism offences. The journalists are the latest group to go on trial, activists say.
"This is bad for Turkey's international image," said Hüseyin Bagci, of Ankara's Middle East Technical University's international relations department. Bagci described Erdoğan's Kurdish political initiative – unpopular with many Turks – as dead, but said the government remained divided over how to deal with the worsening insurgency, with no clear strategy.
Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised the Turkish government for the prosecution of pro-Kurdish politicians, activists and journalists who exercise their right to freedom of expression.
Andrew Gardner, Turkey researcher of Amnesty International, said: "[This] prosecution forms a pattern where critical writing, political speeches and participation at peaceful demonstrations are used as evidence of terrorism offences."
More than 100 journalists are currently in jail in Turkey, more than in Iran or China. Many of them work for Kurdish media outlets. About 800 more face charges and many journalists have been fired or have quit their jobs because of direct or indirect pressure from the Turkish government.
In a recent speech, the interior minister, Idris Naim Sahin, compared writers and journalists to PKK fighters, saying that there was "no difference between the bullets fired in [the Kurdish south-east] and the articles written in Ankara".
The government maintains that none of the journalists on trial have been arrested for their work as members of the press. However, the 800-page indictment includes charges for "denigrating the state" against one journalist who wrote about sexual harassment at Turkish Airlines. Özlem Agus, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish Tigris News Agency (DIHA), was singled out for bringing to light sexual abuse of minors in the Pozanti prison in Adana. Other offending articles include interviews with the pro-Kurdish Freedom and Democracy party (BDP) leader Sebahattin Demirtas, and reports on casualties in the fights between the PKK and Turkish armed forces.
"All of the defendants are on trial for doing their jobs," the defence lawyer Meral Danis Bektas said. "A free press and freedom of expression are cornerstones of democracy. Without them, democratic political participation becomes impossible. Erdoğan now openly threatens journalists or dictates [what to write]. This attitude creates a terrible climate for press freedom."
A report by the International Crisis Group to be published on Tuesday blames both sides for the worsening situation. It says the government needs to "reform oppressive laws that jail legitimate Kurdish politicians" and to "make amends" for the excessive behaviour of its security forces. But it adds: "The Kurdish movement, including PKK leaders, must abjure terrorist attacks and publicly commit to realistic political goals. Above all, politicians on all sides must legalise the rights most of Turkey's Kurds seek, including mother-language education, an end to discriminatory laws, fair political representation and more decentralisation."
The report also claims Ankara has "zigzagged" on its commitments to Kurds' rights. At times it has given "positive signals" including scheduling optional Kurdish lesson in schools. "At others, they appear intent on crushing the PKK militarily, minimise the true extent of fighting, fail to sympathise with Kurdish civilian casualties, openly show their deep distrust of the Kurdish movement, do nothing to stop the arrest of thousands of non-violent activists and generally remain complacent as international partners mute their criticism at a time of Middle East turmoil."
Since 2009, 8,000 pro-Kurdish politicians, lawyers, academics, writers and members of the media have been arrested on terrorism charges.
The new media trial "is clearly political," said the investigative journalist Ertugrul Mavioglu, who faced terrorism charges, dropped last December, for interviewing the KCK's leader Murat Karayilan, who operates from a base in northern Iraq.
Mavioglu said: "The government wants to set an example, it wants to intimidate. Journalists are being told: 'There are limits on what you are allowed to say.'"
Last modified: Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Your comments:
It is good to read about what is going on in this well known holiday destination as Prime Minister Erdogan's government becomes increasingly repressive. The importance of Turkey to the NATO alliance makes America reluctant to criticise him, and the importance of UK arms sales means that our Government, not only remains silent but actively supports Turkey in its oppression of Kurdish dissidents in the UK. Turkey is a fantastic country and a great place to visit, but Erdogan's electoral ambitions, determination to consolidate his position and suppression of the opposition are becoming increasingly dangerous when really he should be seeking reconciliation, in particular with the Kurds, so that the country can be united and therefore be in a better position to face the instability in Syria and achieve his ambition to become an even more important regional player. He should learn from Communist Eastern Europe that in the long run, autocracy ends in instability. A pre-existing pluralist body politic is a bulwark against chaos, an asset from which unfortunately most of his fellow Islamic regimes have not been able to benefit.
Posted by: Christopher Halliwell: 12 Sep, 2012 15:44:29Its not only the Kurdish journalists, lawyers, politicians, civil society activists, academics who face charges of supporting terrorism and long imprisonement. The Turkish prosecutors are reaching outside Turkey now to indict anyone who, in articles and speeches supports the Kurds in their struggle to obtain their fundamental human rights and their pleas to resolve the conflict through dialogue rather than the gun. I, a UK Barrister, along with others from this country, are listed in an indictment under Turkey's anti-terror law. We are currently observing the trial of 35 Kurdish lawyers who were simply "doing their job" as defence lawyers of the Kurdish leader, Ocalan.They have been in prison for the last 6 months whilst the 100 plus defendants in the KCK trial have been incarcerated for over 2 years. It is shameful that the UK, US and the EU champion Turkey as the great regional peeace negotiator when it massacres, persecutes, and imprisons its own innocent civilians. What irony that Turkey should criticise Syria and ask that it releases its political prisoners when Turkey has so many. UK, Hague and Cameron, please wake up. Your silence condones these extreme abuses and human rights violations
Posted by: margaret owen: 12 Sep, 2012 15:07:50The only way we know what is happening in areas of conflict and dispute is by Investigative Journalists risking their lives to find out the facts. Quite often they are targetted, sometimes by both sides. We need them so must protesst when ever they are prosecuted, usually persecuted, for simply doing their dangerous job. Far too many Inestigative Journalsits are murdered for doing their job. We must stand up for them where ever they work.
Posted by: Neil Taylor: 11 Sep, 2012 13:09:35
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
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