Turkey / Europe & Central Asia

CPJ Update Committee to Protect JournalistsMarch 17, 2006 In meeting with CPJ, Colombian president vows support for beleaguered provincial press

By Robert Mahoney As Turkish nationalist resist European tilt, free expression is a victim.

CPJ Update Committee to Protect JournalistsFebruary 17, 2006 CPJ’s Attacks on the Press released in four cities worldwide

AFGHANISTAN: 1 Ali Mohaqqiq Nasab, Haqooq-i-Zan (Women’s Rights) Imprisoned: October 1, 2005 The attorney general ordered editor Nasab’s arrest on blasphemy charges after the religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai, Mohaiuddin Baluch, filed a complaint about his magazine. “I took the two magazines and spoke to the Supreme Court chief, who wrote to the attorney…

Attacks and developments throughout the region

Istanbul, Turkey, February 7, 2006—Scuffles erupted between riot police and Turkish nationalist lawyers at the start of the trial today of five journalists in a freedom of speech case given prominence by Turkey’s European Union application. After more than two hours of courtroom chaos, the judge adjourned the hearing until April 11 to allow the…

Istanbul, Turkey, February 6, 2006—Five prominent Turkish journalists are due to appear in court on Tuesday on charges of insulting the judiciary for criticizing a court decision to ban an academic conference on the killing of Armenians during the last days of the Ottoman Empire. The case has embarrassed Turkey, which is in negotiations to…

New York, January 24, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the dropping of charges of “insulting Turkishness” against an acclaimed author but is appalled that journalists still face jail under the same draconian statute. A court in Istanbul dismissed Monday the prosecution under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code of novelist Orhan Pamuk who…