censorship by court: hrant dink

Goddammit. Today a court here in İstanbul found Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink guilty of "insulting Turkishness" and gave him a six-month suspended sentence (incidentally, this is the same court--and same law--under which Orhan Pamuk has been charged). This isn't a big surprise, really--it's not news that the reactionary deep-statist/Kemalist types have a powerful standing in this country's legal system, which is another reason legal reform in accordance with EU codes is so important. I'm fairly certain that this is partly an attempt to provoke trouble with the EU, as well as smack down an important minority rights and freedom of expression advocate. Dink, incidentally, was one of the organizers of the Armenian genocide conference two weeks ago. The conference organizers' defiance of similarly reactionary jurists in that episode--and the government's support for their actions--was a sign of what I hope will be a continuing weakening of this constituency's waning grip on power. In the meantime, I hope politicians will also speak out in the defense of fundamental freedoms in this case. Dink is appealing; with luck perhaps some of these cases will provoke a revision of the disastrous Press Law that allows for such prosecutions.

See here for Bianet coverage; Reporters Sans Frontières and PEN International have both mentioned Dink's case in the past.