Europe & Central Asia

What kind of journalism triggers Turkish state retribution? Read for yourself.

Cartoon by Dogan Guzel (Published in Ozgur Ulke on December 11, 1994) On May 17, 1996, an Istanbul criminal court convicted Güzel, a cartoonist with the Kurdish nationalist daily Özgür Ülke,under Article 160 of the Turkish Penal Code (insulting the Turkish Republic). He was sentenced to 10 months in prison. The basis of the conviction was a…

For the complete Turkish text of Mehmed’s Book, click on the link below: http://members.xoom.com/mehmedin/ English Excerpt: An Istanbul taxi driver recalls his military service in southeast Turkey (1992-1994)

Sirnak—Like other journalists before me, I was taken to the southeast on a trip organized by the Turkish Joint Chiefs of Staff. Most of our time was spent in and around Sirnak, a border garrison town that has become symbolic of all the problems of that region. Nowadays, the principal landmark in Sirnak is the…

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly troubled by your government’s recent attempts to censor four opposition newspapers prior to the October 31 presidential elections.

New York, October 27, 1999 — A Northern Irish journalist does not have to hand over his notes on the 1989 murder of a Belfast lawyer, the province’s senior judge ruled today. Ed Moloney, the Northern Ireland editor of the Dublin-based Sunday Tribune, had faced up to five years in jail and unlimited fines for…

Your Excellencies, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by today’s violent attack against Zeljko Kopanja, the founder and chief editor of Nezavisne Novine,the largest independent Serb daily in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Calls on Prime Minister to Launch Immediate Investigation and to Bring Perpetrators to Justice New York, N.Y., October 21, 1999-The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed outrage at the assassination today of prominent academic and journalist Ahmet Taner Kislali. Kislali, a regular columnist for the daily Cumhuriyet,was killed today in a bomb attack in front of his…

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns in the strongest terms today’s indictment of Andrew Finkel, a free-lance journalist based in Istanbul who reports for Time magazine and the Times of London and appears on CNN. In a hearing today, Finkel, a British national, was charged with “insulting state institutions” under Article 159 of the Turkish Penal Code. The charge comes in response to a February 1998 article Finkel wrote for the daily Sabah titled “Shurnak 1998,” which discussed Turkey’s ongoing military operations against the Kurds in the southeast. An expert panel’s report, submitted to the court, concluded that Finkel did not insult the military. Another hearing has been scheduled for November 16, pending the report of a second panel of experts on the validity of the charges. If convicted, Finkel faces up to six years in prison.