THE DAILY BLADE: EU Slams Turkey’s Free Speech Restrictions
In the latest progress report on the status of Turkey’s petition to join the 25-nation bloc, the European Union (EU) insisted that Turkey must do more to prevent torture of Kurds, respect the rights of non-Muslim religious minorities and protect freedom of expression.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn noted that the pace of necessary reforms in Turkey had slowed since last year’s progress report was issued, and specifically cited the "infamous" Article 301 of Turkey’s Penal Code, which makes it a crime to "insult" Turkish identity.
With genocide denial an apparently inextricable component of Turkish identity, any writer, journalist or other intellectual who acknowledges the wholesale slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 can be brought up on criminal charges under the free-speech squelching Article 301. Turkish writer and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, was charged under Article 301 (the charges were dropped), and Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was convicted and faces jail time.
Europeans have become increasingly hostile to Turkey’s EU ambitions and in one of those rare cases where Turkish self-interest also benefits Armenians, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated a new willingness to amend Article 301.
Last week, Erdogan held a two-hour closed-door meeting in Istanbul with representatives of trade unions and other non-governmental organizations to listen to suggestions for possible changes that would satisfy both the EU and the Nationalists, who strongly oppose amending or scrapping the law. Erdogan himself does not want the law repealed, according to The Associated Press:
"If there are certain problems that arise from the abstractness of article 301 of the penal code, we are open to suggestions to make the article more concrete," Erdogan told reporters at the start of the meeting.
"There is a need for a change of mentality, and this will take some time," Erdogan said.
"If 301 is interpreted in a liberal way in line with the aims of the legislators, there will be no problem concerning freedom of opinion and speech," he said.
The government has long argued that, despite the trials, no one has ended up in prison for expressing opinions.
Critics say the trials and threat of prosecution act as a deterrent to free speech.
At a press conference in Brussels, Rehn said this meeting was "a welcome initiative," but warned: "We expect that words lead to deeds and without unnecessary delay."
In an unrelated free speech development, in its fifth annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index issued in late October, Reporters Without Borders ranked Turkey at 100 and Armenia just beneath it at 101 (as a point of reference, North Korea is dead last on the list at 168).
As Armenia has no law analogous to Turkey’s Article 301 and has not put any journalists on trial as Turkey has, The Stiletto was perplexed that Turkey ranked higher on the list than Armenia – and, wasn’t further down the list closer to North Korea.
Two weeks ago, The Stiletto e-mailed the group’s Washington, DC offices requesting clarification of the survey methodology – specifically, what questions were on the questionnaire; the credentials of the "independent" observers who compiled the information on both countries; and how the final score was computed. As of yet, The Stiletto has not received an answer.
As it happens, The Stiletto is not the only one questioning the accuracy and fairness of the Reporters Without Borders methodology. Unfortunately, the MSM just regurgitated the rankings without examining their validity.
The Revolution Got Stalled
In an unexpected and electrifying development, five prominent black Dem politicos in Maryland crossed party lines to support Republican Michael Steele’s run for the Senate. Unfortunately, they did not sway a large enough percentage of black voters to join them:
With about 98 percent of Maryland's precincts reporting, Cardin received 54 percent and Steele 43 percent.
Exit polls indicate that Cardin got 74 percent of the black vote and Steele 25 percent. Steele was backed by 52 percent of whites, while 47 percent supported Cardin. Steele's slight edge with white voters was not enough to counter Cardin's advantage with blacks.
Steele’s campaign effort was credible, he avoided gaffes and botched jokes and his humorous commercials stood out from the miasma of negativity. But in the end, he could not overcome the overwhelming anti-Republican tsunami that swept incumbents out of office and sank his hopes by depressing his support among blacks who had never voted Republican but would have voted for him. Shrewdly realizing that Steele was the right man at the wrong time, the Republican National Commitee has offered the chairmanship to Steele when Ken Mehlman steps down in January. Sending a strong message to the black community that Republicans are serious about finding, nurturing and running talented black candidates will help get the next Michael Steele elected.
Tort Lawyers Win One, Lose One (II)
The California Supreme Court refused to review a ruling against Ford Motor Co. in a case involving a California woman awarded $82.6 million in damages after she was paralyzed when her Ford Explorer rolled over on the Interstate (Buell-Wilson v. Ford Motor Co., S146150). A New York judge dismissed a negligence suit in a case involving a woman who got hot coffee dumped in her lap after the wheel came off a rolling tray table on which she had placed the cup, because the plaintiff did not prove that the table was "within the exclusive control of the defendant," adding "The Court cannot rule out that the defect was caused by some agency other than defendant's negligence (Molina v. State, 107348).
Trackbacks
-
March 9, 2007
The Stiletto wrote:
The United States government continues to remain silent on free speech restrictions in Turkey – most notably, what the European Union has called the "infamous" Article 301 of the Penal Code. Under Article 301, more than 60 fiction and non-fiction writers have been prosecuted for "denigrating Turkishness" – typically, for acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. Turkish novelist and Novel Laureate Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted under Article 301 because he told a Swiss magazine, that "Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it." Another Turkish novelist, Elif Şafak, ...
Comments