Turkey: Unsatisfactory gesture: Suspending jail terms for editors

[IG-H at TRILOS.han.de]

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                                                       Hannover, 16.08.97.

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   15 August, 1997, Copyright © Turkish Daily News
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      [INLINE] Unsatisfactory gesture: Suspending jail terms for editors

     * Dozens of journalists and writers will remain behind bars because
       the laws say people cannot publish stories or write their views
       which the state regards as offensive...

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    Editorial by Ilnur Cevik

   The Parliament has approved a new law termed as a press pardon which
   the government has claimed is a great improvement... The new law
   suspends the prison terms for editors of newspapers who print material
   which the state feels is detrimental to national security and unity.

   So if you are an editor who has landed in prison for something one of
   your correspondents wrote then the new law allows your sentence to be
   suspended for three years. If you "behave" yourself and do not allow
   your correspondents to write material that the state objects to for
   three years then your sentence will be scrapped.

   This is not a pardon. It is simply a "suspension of a sentence" which
   is the superficial way of deceiving Western public opinion that we are
   trying to do something in the name of press freedom.

   The authorities, as usual, did not take this step because they felt
   something had to be done to allow the press to work in a freer
   atmosphere. They did it because they came under intense pressure from
   the West and had to satisfy their Western counterparts...

   What is done is unsatisfactory. We cannot just suspend or even pardon
   people for what they have written in their newspapers. What we have to
   do is to see to it that writing articles or publishing news reports
   are no longer a crime in this country. As long as publishing stories
   in a newspaper or a periodical can be regarded as a crime in Turkey
   whether we suspend the prison sentences of editors or even give them a
   pardon is simply irrelevant.

   What is very strange here is the mentality that has been displayed by
   the government. They are not even suspending the prison terms for
   correspondents who write stories that are regarded as an offense by
   the state, but they are only trying to get the editor off the hook. So
   here there is clear discrimination among our colleagues which is a
   constitutional offense.

   Let us stop playing games of deception. If we really want press
   freedom then those articles in the laws that obstruct this kind of
   freedom should be scrapped. People should not be imprisoned for the
   news reports they write. People should not be jailed for publishing
   their views.

   Once this law is approved by the president a handful of editors may
   leave prison but dozens of other journalists and writers will remain
   behind bars simply for writing views which the state feels are
   offensive...
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- --
Press-Agency Ozgurluk: http://www.ozgurluk.org
The struggle for human right, freedom, justice and democracy in Turkey
and Kurdistan
Mailinglistinfo: petidomo at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl

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