(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 6 December 1999 RSF press release: Turkey’s Membership in the European Union RSF expresses its concern about press freedom violations in Turkey in a letter to European commissioners On the occasion of the European Summit to be held in Helsinki on 10 and 11 December 1999, when Turkey’s application […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 6 December 1999 RSF press release:
Turkey’s Membership in the European Union
RSF expresses its concern about press freedom violations in Turkey in a letter to European commissioners
On the occasion of the European Summit to be held in Helsinki on 10 and 11 December 1999, when Turkey’s application for membership in the European Union will be discussed, Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has drawn attention to the press freedom situation in Turkey in letters to the European commissioners for external affairs and expansion, Chris Patten and Gunther Verheugen, respectively.
“Despite the promises of Mr. Bülent Ecevit’s government, writes RSF, pressure on pro-Kurdish and far left media has increased, notably during the trial of Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in May and June 1999. All too often, Turkish authorities use the legislative texts adopted to fight terrorism to in fact repress press freedom and censor democratic debate. Some 100 journalists are currently imprisoned in Turkey, most having been accused of having links with terrorist groups. Arbitrary arrests, beatings and even torture are still widely used means of repressing information on the Kurdish question.”
RSF also recalls that in 1998, “some 10 journalists were tortured during their incarceration, and at least 60 were attacked. Since the beginning of 1999, some fifty journalists have been arrested, sometimes in a rough manner. The use of torture and other violence by State agents remains constant, despite some efforts to reinforce legislation penalising their use. The legal system rarely imposes sentences for police brutality.”
Though an amnesty law was adopted on 28 August 1999, which notably led to the release of six journalists, RSF considers that “the suspension of legal action against journalists for a three-year period is insufficient and may force them to practice self-censorship. In fact, if those who benefit from this law are again charged in a press matter during the probation period, they will subsequently have to serve the prison sentences from which they were exempted.” RSF asks for the “annulment of articles 8 and 7.2 of antiterrorist law no. 3713, relative to the ‘propaganda’ offence, and the abolition of prison sentences, called for in articles 312 and 159 of the Penal Code, which punish journalists who have peacefully expressed their opinions,” while insisting anew on the need to stop issuing prison sentences for press law violations.
Finally, RSF concludes these letters to the two European commissioners by asking for “the immediate and unconditional release of two journalistes – Yalçin Küçük of the leftist weekly Hepileri, arrested on 29 October 1998, and Hasan Özgün, of the far-left daily Özgür Gündem, arrested on 10 December 1993 – as well as a fair trial for Asiye Zeybek Güzel, of the far-left weeklies Isçinin Yolu and Atilim, arrested on 22 February 1997, and Nureddin Sirin, of the Islamist weekly Selam, arrested on 6 February 1997.”
