turkish journalists on trial

Earlier this week the trial of five Turkish journalists (Hasan Cemal, İsmet Berkan, Haluk Şahin, Murat Belge and Erol Katırcıoğlu), who were charged with attempting to "influence the decision of a court" for articles criticizing an İstanbul court's heavy-handed attempts to stop a conference on the Armenian genocide last fall, was postponed amidst an uproar when several of the nationalist lawyers present got into a scuffle with police. The lawyers (members of Kemal Kerinçşiz's Lawyers' Union, the right-wing group that has convinced prosecutors to file charges under Article 301 and other statutes against many writers and journalists, including Orhan Pamuk) raised a ruckus, shouting that the EU and human rights observers present should be expelled from the courtroom, and yelling at the judge. The judge promptly kicked them out (good for him!) for being disruptive and because they were not official members of the prosecution team. The nationalists proceeded to start a scuffle with the police guarding the trial--a telling show of the thuggish behavior. It's very pleasing to see a judge finally stand up to these bullies, who are using flawed laws in a blatant attempt to silence independent and progressive voices and to damage relations with the EU.

Bianet reports in English here, and the Guardian covers the story here. Bianet also has a longer and juicier Turkish article on the events. The five journalists were charged under Article 288 of the Penal Code, which prohibits attempts to sway the decision of a court, as well as Article 301, which prohibits "insulting" state institutions, Turkishness, etc. Both are bad laws, and the Lawyers Union has seized upon both as tools for the current campaign of legal intimidation. The trial's been postponed until 11 April, and the journalists are confident that they will win. The presence of European MP Joost Lagendijk and representatives from the Committee to Protect Journalists, as well as other human rights groups, has sent an important signal to the Turkish government that international scrutiny of these freedom of expression cases will continue.

For some background on Kerinçşiz and the Lawyers' Union see this post about the Pamuk matter. And here's a lengthy post (as well as an article I wrote for Bianet) on the groundbreaking Armenian conference last fall, the pretext for this particular court case.