Apply Pressure Firmly

Michael Hedges March 19, 2012 - Follow on Twitter

Media freedom watchers routinely report the egregious sins of politicians against media workers. The effect is notably disheartening. Still, the pressure is attention getting.

Turkey’s government has a less than saintly reputation when it comes to tossing people in jail, media workers in particular it seems. About 100 are currently in cells, one for a thousand days without trial. According to the leading indexes of press freedom Turkey is not far from the bottom.

Last week a Turkish court released four media workers accused of conspiring to overthrow the government. Under Turkey’s current anti-terrorism law a person committing an offense – hanging a banner, attending a demonstration or writing an article, for example – appearing to support an officially recognized terrorist organization “shall be punished as a member of the organization.” Turkey has the unenviable reputation as the country with most locked up media workers, noted WAN-IFRA welcoming the release (March 15). (See WAN-IFRA statement here)

Milliyet reporter Nedim Sener and three others had been incarcerated pending trial for more than a year. They were charged with collaboration with a web news portal associated with the ultra-nationalist group Ergenekon. Sener’s exposé on the official investigation of journalist/editor Hrant Dink’s murder led to Turkish intelligence service officers filing complaints and, thereafter, a 2010 award by the International Press Institute (IPI) as Press Freedom Hero.

“The gradually increasing pressure from the EU and foreign media had a great effect on today's decision,” said opposition politician Ilhan Cihaner, quoted by Reuters (March 12). In 2010 the ECHR fined the Turkish government €133,000 for failing to protect the life of Hrant Dink.

Turkish media workers – and others – regularly appeal for relief to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Newspaper columnist Erbin Tusalp won a decision at the ECHR (February 21), overturning a Turkish court ruling that he’d insulted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mr. Tusalp applied to the ECHR after the Turkish Supreme Court rejected his appeal.

“It was true that Mr. Tusalp had used a satirical style to convey his strong criticism,” said the ECHR statement. “In that context, the Court underlined that the protection of Article 10 (freedom of expression) was applicable not only to information or ideas that were favorably received but also to those which offended, shocked or disturbed. Consequently, the Court could not find that the strong remarks highlighted by the Turkish courts could be construed as a gratuitous personal attack against the Prime Minister.”

Appeals brought by Turkish media workers literally dot the ECHR calendar. Last December ECHR judge Ayse Isil Karakas, who is Turkish, criticized various Turkish laws and practices with respect to media and human rights in an interview with NTV. Turkey has the highest number of human rights violations among Council of Europe Member States.

The pressure seems to be having an effect. “We are trying to create an internal legislation system in order to decrease the number of cases that are taken to the ECHR by Turkish citizens,” said Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin at a press conference (March 16), noting that judicial reforms would necessarily include press freedom. “We want to solve these kinds of cases in Turkey if possible. If the ECHR accepts this, we will form a legal commission and look for a consensus in this commission before cases are taken to the ECHR.”

“This (Tusalp  v Turkey) judgment must be placed in the broader context of the worrying series of violations of Article 10 by Turkey, now symbolized by the Turkish Prime Minister successfully taking defamation proceedings against a journalist to curtail press criticism, with the Turkish courts again blatantly failing to apply the Court’s case law on criticizing political figures,” observed Ghent University media law and human rights scholars Dirk Voorhoof and Rónán ó Fathaigh in the strassburgobservers.com blog that monitors the ECHR (February 23). “A very awkward situation for a country that has been a member for 60 years of the Council of Europe and of the European Convention on Human Rights.”

See also in ftm Knowledge

Press/Media Freedom - Challenges and Concerns

Press and media freedom worldwide is facing challenges from many corners. As authoritarian leaders impose strict control over traditional and new media with impunity, media watchers have concerns for democracy. This ftm Knowledge file accounts the troubles of this difficult decade. 88 pages. PDF (December 2011)

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Media in Turkey

With roots in the East and branches in the West, media in Turkey is big, bold and sometimes government controlled. This ftm Knowledge file shows the size and the shape of this rich media market. 30 pages PDF includes Resources (December 2009)

Order here