(CPJ/IFEX) – On 27 September 1999, an Istanbul State Security Court banned distribution of the 27 September edition of the Islamist daily “Akit”. Copies of the newspaper were seized from the paper’s head office and reportedly from kiosks in Istanbul. The seizure stems from an item published in the newspaper titled “Open Letter,” written by […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – On 27 September 1999, an Istanbul State Security Court banned
distribution of the 27 September edition of the Islamist daily “Akit”.
Copies of the newspaper were seized from the paper’s head office and
reportedly from kiosks in Istanbul.
The seizure stems from an item published in the newspaper titled “Open
Letter,” written by veteran columnist Abdurrahman Dilipak. The column, an
open letter to Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on the occasion of his state
visit to Washington, DC, strongly criticised the Turkish government on
several issues, including state restrictions on the use of headscarves by
women. In the column, Dilipak asked the prime minister: “Could you tell me
how you will defend yourself against the questions about hundreds of
teachers and students that you threw away from their schools just because
they were wearing headscarves…?”
The court charged that the column constituted “incitement of the people
against the state.”
Dilipak, who has been the target of dozens of legal suits in response to his
published columns, also faces possible charges.
