(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Türk, RSF protested the ten-day suspension imposed on extreme left daily “Yeni Evrensel”. Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary-general, asked the minister to cancel this decision. Since the beginning of 2000, two other newspapers, including the monthly “Deng” and the weekly “Roja Teze”, have already received similar […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Türk, RSF protested the ten-day suspension imposed on extreme left daily “Yeni Evrensel”. Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary-general, asked the minister to cancel this decision. Since the beginning of 2000, two other newspapers, including the monthly “Deng” and the weekly “Roja Teze”, have already received similar sentences, for 30 and 15 days’ suspension, respectively. The organisation pointed out that “the European Court of Human Rights recently condemned Turkey twice for violating freedom of speech.”
According to information collected by RSF, on 5 October, the staff of daily “Yeni Evrensel” were informed that the newspaper would be suspended for ten days starting on 6 October. “Yeni Evrensel” was sentenced under terms in Article 312 of the penal code for “incitment to hatred and to racial and regional discrimination” following the publication of a 6 June 1999 article entitled “The Kurdish issue and the fight for equal rights”. On 14 June 2000, the Appeals Court confirmed the sentencing of the editor-in-chief, Tuncay Seyman, to a fine and one year and eight months in jail (which was converted into a fine) and the newspaper’s suspension for ten days.
