Turkish government proposes amendments to law limiting freedom of speech

08/04/2008

The Turkish government sent a proposal to parliament Monday aimed at softening a widely criticised law that curbs free speech.

(Zaman, Turkish Daily News, Hurriyet, The New Anatolian, Sabah - 08/04/08; AP, Bloomberg, DPA - 07/04/08)

The AKP’s proposal states that future prosecution under Article 301 will require permission from the president, government spokesman Cemil Cicek says. [Getty Images]

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) submitted to parliament Monday (April 7th) draft legislation aimed at easing current restrictions on free speech.

The proposal contains amendments to the controversial Article 301, which decrees jail sentences of three years or less for insulting "Turkishness".

Prosecutors have used it to indict scores of prominent Turkish intellectuals, including Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 Nobel Literature Prize winner; Elif Safak, a prominent female writer; and Hrant Dink, the ethnic Armenian editor-in-chief of a Turkish-Armenian newspaper, Agos. Convicted of "insulting Turkishness", he was killed in January 2007 by a Turk who cited that charge as his motive.

Although most Article 301 trials have ended without a conviction, the EU and international rights groups have long urged Turkey to amend the law or scrap it altogether.

The proposal was submitted to parliament ahead of visits by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn later this week.

It would require approval of any Article 301 prosecution by the president, rather than by the justice minister or an expert committee, as earlier envisioned. Currently, such cases can be filed directly with the courts.

"The predominant inclination among the AKP is that [the] president's permission should be sought," government spokesman Cemil Cicek told reporters.

The bill would also replace the elusive notion of "denigrating Turkishness" with "denigrating the Turkish nation". The maximum sentence would shrink to two years, potentially freeing those currently jailed under this charge. In Turkey, jail sentences not exceeding two years can be suspended until the offender commits the same crime again.

Given its clear parliamentary majority, the AKP should easily pass the bill, even if the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) opposes, as it has vowed, any changes to Article 301.

It was not immediately clear when lawmakers would vote or whether EU critics, who have been calling for outright annulment, will be satisfied with the revisions.

The AKP has been criticised in recent months for slowing the pace of EU-required reforms.

"Article 301 … is one of the priority areas that need to be addressed," Tuesday's Turkish Daily News quoted an official from the EU Secretariat General as saying. "But it is not the only one," the anonymous source added.

A to-do list from Brussels reportedly seeks the urgent revision of a number of other bills expanding freedom of expression.

Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on Monday that Ankara would outline its reform priorities.

"We are determined on the issue of reforms," he told reporters. "No matter how hard they are, we believe reforms are important for Turkey's future."