Top Bureaucrats Discuss Turkey's Press Freedom in Ankara

Freedom of Expression and Press Project, an initiative by Justice Ministry and Council of Europe, realized its third annual conference in Ankara yesterday.

The conference brought together Council of Europe General Secretary Thorbjorn Jagland, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin, Consitutional Court Chairman Haşim Kılıç, Appeals Court Chairman Ali Alkan and State Audit Council Chairman Hüseyin Karakullukçu.

Reminding the pending 450 complaints in ECHR regarding expression freedom abuses in Turkey, Council of Europe General Secretary Jagland underscored that the Turkish Anti-Terror Act and Turkish Penal Code needed immediate revisions.

"Media has the right to broadcast dissident opinions, too. Some thoughts might even shock you, but this is what it takes to establish expression freedom in a country. Freedom expression does not weaken a state, it enhances democracy."

On the other hand, Justice Minister Ergin criticized the objectivity of CPJ's report on Turkey's jailed journalists claiming that they were in fact "terrorists".

"In my opinion, the struggle to defend individuals' terrorist act in the name of press freedom is aiming to create a privileged criminal class," he said. "Some of these individuals involved in crimes including being an illegal organization member, kidnapping, possession unlicensed guns and material, bombing and homicide. So I don't find CPJ’s jailed journalist report reliable."

Constitutional Court chairperson Haşim Kılıç reminded that 98 percent of expression freedom cases were related to defamation charges partially due to the aggressive language of politicians.

"In 2012, out of 172.723 expression freedom cases, 2539 were related to terrorism propaganda and 406 cases were linked with praising crime or criminals," Kılıç said. (EA/BM)