June 10,
1998
Your
Excellency:
The Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ) writes to you with
great urgency about the case of Ragip Duran, a
veteran Turkish reporter who has been sentenced
to prison in clear violation of internationally
recognized standards for a free press. Duran has
been summoned to report to a state prosecutor's
office on Tuesday, June 16, to begin serving a
10-month prison term for violating Article 7 of
the Anti-Terror Law.
Duran is a
well-respected journalist who has worked for
several newspapers and news agencies, including
Agence France-Presse, the British Broadcasting
Corporation, Liberation, Özgür
Gündem and other Turkish daily newspapers.
His conviction stems from his interview with
Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which appeared
in the now-defunct daily Özgür
Gündem on April 12, 1994. His sentence was
confirmed by the Court of Cassation on October
23, 1997, and on February 16, 1998, a state
prosecutor granted him a four-month postponement
of his sentence.
CPJ, a nonpartisan
organization of journalists dedicated to the
defense of press freedom worldwide, views the
conviction and pending imprisonment of Ragip
Duran as a flagrant violation of the most basic
right of journalists -- the right to "seek,
receive, and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers,"
as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. We urge Your
Excellency to examine all possible legal options
to rescind the court ruling against Ragip Duran
in accordance with internationally recognized
norms for press freedom. We also reiterate our
call to the Turkish government to implement
meaningful legal reforms to end the prosecution
and imprisonment of journalists in Turkey for
their publication of news and
opinion.
Thank you for your
attention to this important matter. We will
continue to closely monitor all developments
with regard to this case. We look forward to a
response at your earliest
convenience.
Sincerely,
William A. Orme,
Jr.
Executive
Director