The report comprises the cases and struggles of 695 people related to violations of freedom of expression. The report is organized under eight headings, namely "Murdered Journalists", "Attacks and Threats", "Arrests and Detentions", "Cases related to Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression", "Corrections and Legal Redress", "Reactions to Censorship", "European Court of Human Rights", and "Penalties of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK)". The report cannot be a complete documentation of all incidents - it rather gives an idea about the variety and density of current implementations that target press freedom and freedom of expression.

Murdered Journalists

■ "Tawhid-Salaam Jerusalem Organization": On 4 March, the Ankara 11^th High Criminal Court continued the trial against four members of the "Tawhid-Salaam Jerusalem Organization". The organization is held responsible for the killings of lawyer Bahriye Üçok, journalists Uğur Mumcu and Ahmet Taner Kışlalı and a number of other attacks. The hearing was attended by Halil Sevinç, lawyer of the widow of journalist Mumcu, Vice President of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) Şükran Güldal Mumcu.

Court president Hasan Şatır said that the arrest warrants issued for Ahmet Cansız, Selahattin Ei and Ali Akbulut could not be executed yet. In the indictment prepared on 18 December 2008 it is stated that defendants Cansız, Eş and Akbulut, residing in Iran, are alleged executives of the "illegal Tawhid-Salaam Jerusalem Organization" and that defendant Koral, who lives in Switzerland, is an alleged member of the organization. The defendants face imprisonment of 22 years and 6 months.

Bilge Emeç does not believe that the caught murderer is the real perpetrator. Bilge Emeç  is the widow of killed journalist Çetin Emeç, then general publication director of Hürriyet newspaper. He was killed 21 years ago, on 7 March 1990, in front of his house in Suadiye (Anatolian side of Istanbul). Bilge Emeç said in an interview given to Sanem Altan from Vatan newspaper on 13 February, "It is not very important to find the murderer. I do not believe that the caught murderer is the real perpetrator. They supposedly caught the triggerman. He got married in prison. [...] It has still not been solved who is behind all this".

Bilge Emeç furthermore stated, "I am a Kemalist, I support the army and I am a patriotic women. That is why it suited my book when they said that the assassination had been carried out by Iran, I guess". Islamic Movement organization executive İrfan Çağrıcı and four of his friends stood accused of the murder of Çetin Emeç, his driver Sinan Ercan, writer Turan Dursun and Iranian dissident Ali Akbar Gorbani. The five defendants received various prison sentences including aggravated life sentences.

■Hrant Dink Murder Case / Trabzon: On 16 April, the 2^nd Magistrate Criminal Court of Trabzon (eastern Black Sea coast) will continue the case against eight defendants accused of negligence related to the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Dink, then chief editor of the Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper, was shot dead in front of his office in Istanbul on 19 January 2007. The hearing on12 February was postponed upon the plea of the Dink family lawyers.

Lawyer Hakan Bakrıcıoğlu announced that preparations were in progress for presenting a speech on the substance of the matter. On 25 December 2009, the court heard two of a total of six informants on duty in the town of Pelitli who had claimed that the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command planned the murder. The court refrained from taking the statements of the remaining four officers.

The Gendarmerie Command announced that three of the staff members are still on duty. Ogün Samast set off from the town of Pelit in the province of Trabzon to go to Istanbul. He killed journalist Dink despite all notifications issued to the gendarmerie and the police beforehand.

Ali Öz, then Trabzon Gendarmerie Regiment Commander Colonel, intelligence branch official Captain Metin Yıldız, Military Officers Gazi Günay and Hüseyin Yımaz, Command Sergeant Major Okan Şimşek, Specialist Sergeants Veysel Şahin, Hacı  Ömer Ünalır and Önder Alraz stand accused of simple negligence instead of the offence of "negligence causing death" and face imprisonment of up to two years each.

■ "Social Memory Platform": 23 families of victims of political murders established the "Social Memory Platform". On 11 February, 19 representatives of the platform urged TBMM officials for legal amendments related to the lifting of the statute of limitation for this sort of cases.

Meryem Türkmen, sister of journalist Metin Göktepe who was killed in police custody, read out the following joint statement:

"We did not come with the request to settle old scores but to communicate face to face. We have to find answers to the remaining questions in a joint effort. We know that such crimes will be committed again and again if we do not take that effort. These files will not be closed until we advance to the chain of command and expand into all crimes concealed".

Türkmen finished the statement with a quotation of Prosecutor Doğan Öz who was killed in the course of investigations related to unsolved murders. As Ankara Deputy Prosecutor he had said "We are here to show the situation in its entire clarity and bitterness".

The delegation talked to MP Bekir Bozdağ from ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Prof. Dr. Zafer Üskül, Head of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission, Kemal Anadol, Deputy Chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), a group of CHP MPs, President of Parliament Mehmet Ali Şahin, deputies of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Democratic Left Party (DSP) and officials of Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

MHP chair Devlet Bahçeli stated, "We will not meet with representatives of a prejudiced mentality who have shown efforts for years to destroy our party and subvert party members and who constantly and intentionally show our party as a target at every opportunity".

The delegation included Filiz Ali, daughter of Sabahattin Ali; Sezen Öz and Bengi Heval Öz, the wife and the daughter of prosecutor Doğan Öz;Neşe Bulut Erdilek, wife of Necdet Bulut; Nükhet İpekçi, daughter of Abdi İpekçi; Abid Dursun, son of Turan Dursun; Nilgün Türkler, daughter of Kemal Türkler; Canan Kaftanoğlu, wife of Ümit Kaftanoğlu; Meryem Türkmen, sister of Metin Göktepe; Denis Tütengül, daughter of Cavit Orhan Tütengül; Özge Mumcu, daughter of Uğur Mumcu; Hosrof Dink, brother of Hrant Dink; Şengül Hablemitoğlu, wife of Necip Hablemitoğlu;Dicle Anter, daughter of Musa Anter; Mine Yavuz, wife of Orhan Yavuz; Yeter Gültekin, wife of Hasret Gültekin; Eren Aysan, daughter of Behçet Aysan and Ülker Yurdakul, wife of Cevat Yurdakul.

■Statement of Secret Witness-1: On 23 August 2008, the "Secret Witness-1" gave his/her statement related to the murder of journalist Hrant Dink. The witness stated that apart from prime suspect Ogün Samast also Yasin Hayal was at the scene of crime and shot the journalist. His brother Osman Hayal kept watch, according to witness's statement.

Journalist Nedim Şener from Milliyet newspaper reported that the secret witness testified in Turkish to the Istanbul Public Prosecutor Firkre Seçen. According to Şener, the record of the statement did not reveal any information about the identity of the witness such as gender, nationality, age or residence.

Samast is tried at the Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court as the triggerman suspect, Yasin Hayal stands accused of incitement to murder.

The investigations carried out by the police and the prosecution did not confirm that Osman Hayal was in Istanbul on 29 January 2007 when Dink was killed. Only the Dink family lawyers claimed that it was clear from the mobile phone records included in the file that Hayal was in Istanbul on the day of the murder. When the case was opened against Osman Hayal and another 19 defendants, the court did not deem it necessary to take Hayal into detention.

■Hrant Dink Murder Case, 12^th Hearing: The 12^th hearing of the Hrant Dink murder case was held at the 14^th High Criminal Court in Istanbul on 8 February. The joint attorneys requested to investigate allegations related to the so-called "Cage Operation Action Plan" which was supposedly worked out as a coup plan by the Naval Forces, targeting non-Muslims and aiming to charge them of their religious beliefs. The plan was found on a DVD in the office of retired Naval Commander Levent Bektaş in March 2009.

The document, saved on a DVD, contains "classified" paragraphs. The paragraph with the heading "Situation" was quoted as follows: "After theoperations related to Priest Santoro, the Malatya Zirve Publishing House and Hrant DINK, the public opinion was shaped in a way that reactionary non-Muslim groups living in Turkey were being targeted. However, AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party], supported by the opposing media, will spread intense propaganda that the mentioned incidents were organized by ERGENEKON".

The court decided to keep defendants Ogün Samast, Erhan Tuncel, Yasin Hayal, Ersin Yolcu and Ahmet İskender in detention because of the "risk of flight, since the factual criteria showing highly possible crime suspicion is still valid in the existing file and because of insufficient protection precautions". The next hearing is scheduled for 10 May.

Lawyer Fethiye Çetin presented the lawyers' requests in an 18-pages petition with nine paragraphs. The lawyers demanded to launch an investigation into a group of people that played a vital role in the process of showing Dink as a target and to initiate a further investigation into the connections between the murder and the organization responsible for the Cage Action Plan. However, the court declined the request made by the joint attorneys as well as alleged instigator defendant Erhan Tuncel to take the statements of intelligence officers in charge, in particular that of Head of Intelligence Department Ramazan Akyürek and Muhettin Zenit.

The court reiterated the request made to the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TİB) regarding the acquisition of a full list of telephone conversations and SMS in the vicinity of the scene of crime from the morning of 19 January 2007 until after the murder. Two weeks after the murder of Dink, witnesses Turan Meral, Orhan Özbaş and Kaan Gerçek had testified at the police that they drove around Istanbul with murderer suspectOgün Samast. He had allegedly shown them his weapon and said "I came to kill somebody".  The witnesses had furthermore recalled a phone call with Samast on the day of the murder when he said "I killed that person, I will go now". They claimed that they had been too afraid to go to the police.

In the 12^th hearing though the witnesses stated Samast just wanted to show off and that they did not take him seriously. Two of the witnesses retracted the statement that they saw the weapon. The joint attorneys had reason to assume these persons as part of an organized structure and requested to file a complaint with them on the grounds of "false testimony". However, the court told the lawyers to apply to the prosecution in this matter.

A report from the Intelligence Office Presidency sent to the court on 25 September 2009 revealed information about the people who met Samast at the Istanbul Bus Terminal when he arrived.

The court is going to wait for a reply from TİB concerning telephone and SMS communications between Özbaş and Meral. A writing will be sent to the Şişli Mayor's Office regarding documents and the license of an internet café  in Şafak Street used by Samast. Moreover, the Istanbul Police will be asked once again what was being done at a certain office at the time of the murder.

Defendants Erhan Sevil and Mehmet Ali Temelocak will be taken to the coming hearing under compulsion.

Camera records of Şafak Street and of the Akbank brach ATM camera were shown during the hearing. Defenanant Samast allegedly escaped via Şafak Street after the murder. According to the presentation made by joint attorney Deniz Tuna, a person in a black jacket can be seen at 11.16 am prior to the murder. Footage of the Akbank camera reveals that this person is waiting outside the branch till 2.39 pm, talking to an elderly person who has got a mobile phone. Afterwards, the person walks towards the office of Agos newspaper. The Dink familiy lawyers took efforts to identify this person, who talks on the phone at 2.53 pm. After the murder at around 3.00 pm, this person checks whether Samast, who is getting away from the scene, was being followed. The person gets out of view when s/he enters a building on Şafak Street together with another person.

The expected "secret witness" could not be heard since s/he had not been summoned to court. Information about the identity in the record of the hearing and the comment "The secret witness does not know Turkish very well"  made by president judge Erkan Çanak raised concerns about the safety of the witness's life. The protocol includes sentences such as "An interpreter for Armenian should be ready".

Elsa Vidal form the European Desk of the international Reporters without Borders (RSF) organization commented: "Unfortunately, the murder is quite irrelevant in the eyes of those who are competing in the prosecutions related to Dink and freedom of expression. Vidal emphasized that the important questions that accumulated over the past three years should be answered, "The judges needlessly contributed to cover the truth and justice, we expect them to comprehend the severity of this murder".

The Dink family was supported by the Social Memory Platform, namely by the presence of the daughter of writer Sabahattin Ali, the wife and daughter of prosecutor Doğan Öz, the daughter of journalist Abdi İpekçi, the son and daughter-in-law of writer Ümit Kaftanoğlu, the daughter of unionist Kemal Türkler, the son and daughter of journalist Uğur Mumcu, the son of musician Nesmi Çimen, the daughter of poet Metin Altıok, the sibling of archaeologist Yasemin Cebenoyan, the brother and sister of journalist Metin Göktepe, and the family of journalist Cihan Hayırsevener. The writing read out aloud during the meeting held before the hearing was signed by the families of Cevat Yurdakul, Musa Anter, Behçet Aysan, Hasret Gültekin, Turan Dursun, Sevinç Özgüner and Cavit Orhan Tütengil.

The joint announcement of the Social Memory Platform can be summarized as follows:

"We came here to make our voices heard to the ones carrying the official capacity, addressing the ones in responsible positions. We are not addressing the people in despair who are sensitive about this issue. We came here to be together with Rakel Dink and our friends Arat, Delal and Sera. We are interveners in this trial as well and today we will follow up that the list of demands submitted by the lawyers will be taken into account by the court".

The Democratic Judiciary Group declared on 8 February that the murder of Hrant Dink was aimed at democracy and done by a "murder industry". "This is a historic opportunity to throw light on the Dink murder to its full extend and to assure the future of the axis of democracy and freedom in Turkey. We remind the society and the agents of politics and of the judiciary of their responsibility".

The investigation carried out by the Ministry of the Interior concluded "negligence and responsibilities"  in the Hrant Dink murder, yet 19 police officers were exculpated, among them former Head of Intelligence Department Sabri Uzun and current Head of Intelligence Department Ramazan Akyürek.

The inspectors'  report consists of the replies related to the Prime Ministry's report. By progressive stages, the report exculpated the Intelligence Department Presidency and afterwards the Presidency of the Istanbul and the Trabzon Police. The report justifies the acquittal because the notifications sent by Erhan Tuncel to the Intelligence Department, "were transferred to the office in order to record them in the archives. Additional notes were added and signed". The Trabzon Police was acquitted by the reason that Tuncel "was not trustworthy and told lies".

The report furthermore exculpated the Istanbul Police putting forward that the Istanbul Provincial Commission was responsible for the lack of protection for Dink. The report also referred to the claim that "Erhan Tuncel called the police to pass on the name of Samast. He even sent a message to the police five days prior to the murder; still no precautions were taken". The claim is refuted by the comment that "Instead of sending a message, Tuncel could have easily gone to the police or could have called 155 to convey his information".

The report exculpated former Intelligence Department Heads Sabri Uzun and Ramazan Akyürek, Deputy Heads Necmettin Emre and Vedat Yavuz who were responsible for the operations, former Manager of the Extreme Left Desk, Ali Fuat Yılmazer, former Vice Manager Osman Gülbel, Office Chief Yılmaz Angın, police officer Hüsamettin Yaman, former Heads of the Trabzon Police Directorate, Retaş Altay and Ramazan Akyürek, former Branch Manager of the Trabzon Intelligence, former Branch Manager of the Trabzon Intelligence, Engin Dinç, police commandersFaruk Sarı and Ercan Demir, chief inspector Hüseyin Yılmaz, inspector Özkan Mumcu and police officers Muhittin Zenit, Tefik Cantürk, Onur Karakaya, Mehmet Ayhan and Mehmet Uçar

■Mehmet Ali Ağca released: On the 31^st anniversary of the death of journalist Abdi İpekçi, the International Press Institute (IPI) declared that the imprisonment of Mehmet Ali Ağca at the time did not mean that the murder case has been solved yet. Milliyet newspaper publishing director İpekçi was killed on 1 February 1979 in front of his house in Nişantaşı, Istanbul. His murderer Ağca was released from the Ankara Sincan prison on 18 January this year.

In reference to the IPI Unsolved Murders Campaign initiated against journalist murder cases closed on prescription and unjust detentions of journalists, IPI Board Member Ferai Tınç stated, "We, as Turkish journalists, see the İpekçi murder as an unsolved case".

İpekçi's daughter Nükhet İpekçi showed the blood-stained shirt of her father in a program on the Turkish news channel NTV hosted by Can Dündar and said, "Some people see a murderer where other people see a hero". Minister of the Interior of the time, Hasan Fehmi Güneş, said that İpek was chosen to become the victim of a murder that was aimed at creating a stir and even chaos in society:

"The state should have been able to answer all questions asked by the fathers and children of the murdered persons. The state was responsible for this. I am a person who served in the state at the time. It is burdensome that this responsibility could not be fulfilled. A certain path was stroke to solve the incident. This path has been cut, I revolt against this".

Necdet Üruğ, Istanbul Martial Law Commander of the time, plainly commented that he 'used his authority' when he did not keep Ağca in detention for an additional 15 days. Military Prosecutor Ahmet Koç interrogated Ağca and said, "It was unfavourable to keep Ağca in police custody". Ağca himself stated, "The capital punishment you handed down to me is not enough. A pardon will be granted in 1981, I will get out of prison then or escape". When he was asked why he did it, Ağca replied, "To protect the system".

16 families of who lost relatives to political murders made a joint statement when Ağca was released. "What makes us really sad is the glorification and the monetary and moral support for the triggerman", the families said. The statement was signed by the families of Hrant Dink, Uğur Mumcu, Abdi İpekçi, Doğan Öz, Metin Göktepe, Kemal Türkler, Musa Anter, Behçet Aysan, Cavit Orhan Tütengil, Cevat Yurdakul, İlhan Erdost, Metin Altıok, Nesimi Çimen, Onat Kutlar, Sevinç Özgüner, Turan Dursun and Ümit Kaftancıoğlu.

On 18 January, the Prime Ministry Inspection Board (BTK) replied to the inspector's report which turned out positively regarding the alleged negligence of police officers in the Hrant Dink murder case. The BTK indicated in its reply that the Ministry of the Interior "exceeded their authority". Based on a source within the ministry, Radikal newspaper mentioned that the government was determined to solve the Dink murder by focussing on the forces behind it. Thereupon, the BTK said in a written statement that they found the report superficial and that they 'did not agree' with a broad section of the evaluations.

According to the news from 25 February, the BTK objected to the report of the Ministry of the Interior because of its 'superficial evaluations', keeping the report previously prepared by the BTK in the background. The Ministry of the Interior took a step back and said that a new report was to be worked out. The BTK had prepared a report upon the application of Rakel Dink after the murder of her husband and Agos newspaper chief editor Hrant Dink.

Because of alleged "negligence"  put forward by the report, an investigation approved by Prime Minister Erdoğan was launched by the inspectors of the Home Office into 19 police officers, among them also Ramazan Akyürek, Head of the Police Intelligence Department. The investigation was completed on 9 November 2009. The report concluded that there was no need to take any action against the 19 officers from the Trabzon and Istanbul Police, among them Akyürek. However, the report of the Ministry of the Interior was criticized by the Prime Ministry.

Joint attorneys of the Hrant Dink murder case Çetin and Tuna argued that the case, which has been continuing for three years, would not be solved if it was handled this way. They claimed that the time before and after the murder has to be seen as a whole, "All files should be merged at the Istanbul 14^thHigh Criminal Court, where the main trial is being conducted".

The joint attorneys mentioned that vital information was conveyed by the "determination" not to protect Hrant Dink although it was known that he was going to be killed and by treating the murder suspect like a hero:

"For revealing this extremely professionally organized structure all embodied pieces of evidence must be gathered, every single part that might potentially be embodied must be put together, all hints which could decipher the organization should be assessed. This is also crucial for an efficient and effective investigation.

■Hayırsevener investigation: The investigation into the murder of journalist Cihan Hayırsevener on 18 January 2010 is still going on. Hayırsevener was an official of Marmara TV and publication director of the local Güney Marmara'da Yaşam newspaper in the city of Bandırma in the province of Balıkesir on the southern coast of the Sea of Marmara.

The journalist died of loss of blood after he was subject of an armed attack on the Atatürk Boulevard in Bandırma. Prime suspect Serkan Erakkuş(29) was arrested one week later in Edincik and detained in the Bandırma M Type Closed Prison upon the decision of the Bandırma High Criminal Court. Both suspects Tolga Ö. and Ali T. were released pending trial. The murder weapon was found. The police also found the rented cars uses for the murder, one was parked in the district of Susurluk and another one was in Bandırma. There is no solid information regarding the investigation due to a decision of confidentiality. Newspaper owner Ümit Babacan and Balıkesir Journalists Association President Ramazan Demir stated that Hayırsevener became a "victim of an organized criminal organization".

Attacks and Threats

■ Journalist attacked by body guards: Reporter Cenker Tezel, working for the magazine department of Hürriyet newspaper, was attacked by the body guards of Mutasim Gaddafi, son of Libyan leader Muammer al-Kaddafi, on the night of 30 March. Tezel had learned from the news editor of the nation-wide daily that Kaddafi's son was in Istanbul at the time and having a night out at the Al Jamal, a restaurant that turns into a night club later at night. When the reporter tried to take a picture of Mutasim Kaddafi, he was assaulted by his body guards. Tezel suffered injuries in different parts of his body; his camera was broken.

Emrah Güner, camera man of privately owned Fox TV, was also attacked in the same incident. One of Kaddafi's Lybian body guards, Nagielmas Bahi, was slightly injured on his head.

Reporter Cenker Tezel, who was the one attacked and injured, was taken to the Beşiktaş  Police Station together with the bodyguards who assaulted him. Tezel complained about body guard Nagielmas Bahi and police officer Abudllah T., who was among Gaddafi's body guards, and they complained about reporter Tezel in return.

Journalist Tezel was taken into custody under charges of assault and remained behind bars till the next morning. He was hand-cuffed when he was taken to court later on. In the meantime, he was restrained from talking to his lawyer and was kept waiting a long time for a report about the assault.

Tezel was released after he had given his statement to the prosecutor. The Turkish Journalists'  Society (TGC), the Press Council and the Magazine Journalists Association condemned the attack. The TGC stated that much to their regret, the officious attitude of the police shown towards the aggressors made the incident even worse.

"We urge the officials and members of the security in particular to review their attitude towards journalists". The press council criticized that Tezel had been treated like a drug trafficker and condemned the fact that he was handcuffed during the transport.

Female journalists in Tunceli threatened by e-mail:The Provincial Directorate for Public Education of Tunceli (eastern Turkey) announced to have launched an investigation into threatening e-mails sent to the local Tunceli Emek newspaper by Süleyman Çakmak, Manager of the Provincial Public Education Branch. The local newspaper run by three women had received the e-mails sent under the alias of "striking cobra" ('vurucu kobra') after publishing the article entitled "Public education and a strange education" written by Dilek Karakoyun.

Karakoyun had criticized the public education system in her article. Right after the publication of the article on 6 August 2009, the newspaper received an e-mail in the evening hours of the same day sent from the address vurucu-kobra@hotmail.com. A municipality employee with the initials İ.E. from Samsun at the Back Sea coast sent another e-mail to the newspaper on 15 July 2009 containing threats and insults.

The message read as follows: "Is this your business? Of course not. There is only one thing you will do and that is to be smart and keep quiet, otherwise..." The investigation carried out by the Tunceli Public Prosecutor's Office revealed that the msn address 'striking cobra' belongs to Çakmak as Manager of the Provincial Public Education Branch.

The law suit filed by the local newspaper with Çakmak and İ.E. on the grounds of insult and threat in the e-mail messages will start on 11 May. This was announced by the Directorate of the Provincial Public Education after Ali Ekber Ertürk from Akşam newspaper had brought the story to the national agenda with his article "The 'striking cobra' turned out to be the Public Education Branch Manager".

■ Journalist attacked by supposed "secret informant": Journalist Tamer Topçu was attacked by two un-identified persons on the evening of 23March. Topçu had previously criticized the Mayor of Buca Ercan Tatı in several articles. The journalist stated that a person he did not know asked for a meeting, saying that he was going to hand him a file about Mayor Tatı. However, they talked on the phone a couple of times but he never showed up at the places agreed on. Eventually, Topçu was heavily assaulted, supposedly by the same person.

Topçu is known for his articles related to Buca and had made the headlines for his criticism of Mayor Tatı from the Republican People's Party (CHP). He said that he expected this case to be solved by an independent judiciary. Topçu writes columns for the Gazetem Ege newspaper and is currently working at a press institution. He stated that two people got off a taxi and cut his way. He was not able to identify the number plate of the car. The journalist described the incident as follows:

"We were followed by a taxi when I went home from the bus station together with my wife. When we had reached street no. 120, I saw two people coming our way and I told my wife to stay back. One of them had a weapon, the other one was carrying an iron stick. They attacked me. While they were beating me, they threatened me by saying 'If you write anything negative about our mayor once again, we will kill you'".

■Erdoğan-Çandar: "Who are you?": Prime Minister Erdoğan said in an interview on BBC that he could expel "illegal Armenians" from the country if necessary. He addressed journalist Cengiz Çandar, who expected an apology, without mentioning his name: "Who are you? Be honest for once. Advocate for the right thing"

Çandar replied with his article entitled "We did not get it wrong" published in Referans newspaper on 20 March 2010. Mehmet Ali Birand, general publication director of the Kanal D News television channel, also criticized the Prime Minister's approach in his broadcast on 19 March. Author Yaşar Kemal condemned the threat of expelling Armenian workers from the country, saying "They should not do this, it is a shame, for God's sake!".

■ Another interview promised: On 1 May, Ahmet Mahmut Ünlü, a controversial Islamic preacher also known as "Cübbeli Ahmet Hoca" ('Master Ahmet with the gown'), invited Taraf newspaper journalist Fırat Alkaç and photo journalists Celal Yıldız to his office of the Arifan magazine for an intervies and had allegedly threatened the journalist by his press advisor Barış Sezek and his bodyguards.

Alkaç said that he was taken to a room with a steel door which was opened with a remote control by the bodyguards. There, the journalist was supposedly surrounded by Ünlü, press advisor Sezek and the bodyguards and was exposed to an attempt to intimidate him.

In his article, Alkaç  had written about the increasing competition within the İsmailağa Congregation. Ünlü had accepted the journalist's request for an interview. However, when the journalist arrived for the interview, Ünlü apparently said, "I will not give an interview, I just called you to get to know you".

■"Like Hrant Dink...": Journalist Ramazan Pekgöz, news chief of the Turkish Günlük newspaper, received a death threat while he was walking to his office in the morning of 28 February. A person with the initials A.S. stopped Pekgöz on the side walk and said, "We finished Hrant Dink off. We will do the same to you". Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated in front of his workplace Agos newspaper in January 2007.  Pekgöz complained about the person who threatened him at the Taksim Police Station in central Istanbul. The suspect was arrested subsequently.

Journalist Pekgöz said that this person had followed him starting from Galatasaray High School close to the southern end of the popular Istiklal Avenue in Taksim (Istanbul). Apparently, the suspect was cursing on the way.

Pekgöz said that he asked the suspect why he was following him once he got close to him and he replied, "This is a street, I am just walking".

Police officers of the Anti-Terror Branch, the Security Branch and the Intelligence Branch started an investigation into the matter upon Pekgöz's complaint. It turned out that suspect A.S. has got a criminal record for theft. He was apparently born in Çanakkale (south of the Dardanelles) in 1977.

■ Columnists protest PM Erdoğan: On 26 February, the Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS) announced that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once more disregarded the principles of the constitutional state in his statement about columnists. Erdoğan had implied to sack columnist that criticize the government's accomplishments. In his speech Erdoğan had described the media as "provocative" and the columnists' comments as "inappropriate and nasty".

The TGS emphasized that it was in fact the Prime Minister's announcement that was 'inappropriate and nasty'. The journalists union announced that "In a democratic state there should be no such thing as the Prime Minister's efforts to detain the expression of thoughts from journalists and columnists, to attempt to keep them in line with the government and to have them ask for "permission" for their comments. This kind of intervention, these attempts for censorship and auto-censorship do not correspond with the resolutions of the European Court of Human Rights related to press freedom and freedom of expression".

Almost 30 journalists signed a letter of protest addressed to Prime Minister Erdoğan. They wrote: "We as the undersigned columnists think that Prime Minister Erdoğan's statement that the newspaper bosses should control the columnists is contrary to obligatory press freedom and opposes the ideal of a 'democratic Turkey'. We think this is a grave attitude and voice our protest against the statement"

Journalist who signed the letter are Avni Özgürel, Haluk Şahin, Ahmet Taşgetiren, Mümtazer Türköne, Cüneyt Ülsever, Mehmet Tezkan, Ferai Tınç, Hadi Uluengin, Yasin Aktay, Taha Akyol, Şahin Alpay, Ergun Babahan, Ayşe Böhürler, Ali Bulaç, Ahmet Hakan Coşkun, Cengiz Çandar,Yasemin Çongar, Abdurrahman Dilipak, Mustafa Erdoğan, Gülay Göktürk, Okay Gönensin, Nuh Gönültaş, Nazlı Ilıcak, Etyen Mahçupyan,Güngör Mengi, Nuray Mert, Yıldıray Oğur, Mustafa Mutlu, Semih İdiz, Ayşe Hür, Sivilay Abla, Hikmet Çetinkaya, Deniz Kavukçuoğlu, Ataol Behramoğlu, Güray Öz, Yalçın Doğan, Demiray Oral, Bülent Keneş, Melih Altınok, İhsan Dağı,  Emre Uslu, Ruhat Mengi, Hadi Özışık, Hilal Kaplan, Orhan Kemal Cengiz, Kürşat Bumin and Abdullah Bozkurt.

■Arınç invited to more politeness: TGC and ÇGD invited deputy PM Bülent Arınç to more "politeness" after he had "spat" on the media for criticizing the search of the office of the chief prosecutor of Erzincan (north-eastern Anatolia). Arınç gave a speech in Istanbul about the "democratic initiative". Concerning news entitled "The courthouse was searched", Arınç said, "Shame on you. The chief prosecutor searched the [Erzincan] chief prosecutor's home and office with a search warrant at hand. This is the language of law. But in the landloper's language it is "raid". They all got used to raid. They are coming from the tradition of coups", Arınç argued.

ÇGD president Ahmet Abakay said, "We invite everybody to be responsible and serious. Arınç should stop giving advice to the press". In a television program on the evening of 22 February, Arınç said, "I wish I had not said that. I really find the perspective of a part of the media, let it be printed or visual, very wrong and they even insist on their wrongdoing".

■Life sentence demanded in "Kurdish song" murder case: Young man Emrah Gezer was killed by a former special operations police officer in a bar in Ankara in the course of a birthday party because he sang a Kurdish song. Detained defendant police officer Serkan Akbulut stands accused of "premeditated murder" at the Ankara 9^th High Criminal Court. Un-detained defendant Sinem Ululdağ is tried for "incitement to premeditated murder". Both defendants face life sentences. Additionally, the court demanded punishment for "malicious injury" and "insult".

Moreover, the court requested prison sentences for Levent Akbulut because of "malicious injury"; for Ramazan Gezer on the grounds of "opposing Law No. 6136" (Firearms and Knives), "threatening three persons with a weapon" and "insult; and for Gülay and Tülay Türk by reason of "malicious injury" and "insult".

Agos website hacked: On 12 February, a computer hacker posted a text on the website of weekly Armenian Agos newspaper which praised Ogün Samast, prime suspect in the murder case Agos founder Hrant Dink. In the writing put on the main page the hacker(s) said that the murder "was done on behalf of the Turkish flag and the Turkish Republic". Moreover, a photograph of suspect Samast was posted.

The main page of the newspaper and pages containing news articles could not be accessed. Besides plenty of spelling mistakes, the text was full of insults and threats against people who are supporting the newspaper and the Dink case. At the bottom of the writing it concluded: "The game is over". The Initiative against Discrimination and Nationalism protested the hacking on Beyoğlu's Istiklal Avenue (Istanbul) and sold copies of the newspaper.

■ Cameraman injured: On 3 February, cameraman Ertuğrul Yılmaz from local television channel Kanal 48 was attacked when he was recording footage of rubble that had been dropped in a forest belonging to the İçmeler Municipality as a part of the city of Marmara on the western Mediterranean coast. 45-year-old Yılmaz was hospitalized due to the injuries suffered from the attack on 3 February. Akay Öztürk and Şenol Şahin had informed the television channel about the incident.

Yılmaz went to the area which lies within the scope or responsibility of the Marmaris Forestry Directorate together with Öztürk and Şahin. However, while taking pictures of the scene, he encountered the angry reactions of Osman Kaz and his son Ömer.

Aiming to prevent the recording, Osman and Ömer Kaz assaulted the cameraman. Şenol Şahin was attacked as well when he tried to stop the father and the son from attacking the reporter. Yılmaz and his two companions subsequently drove away from the scene to avoid further exposure to violence. As a result of the severe assault, the cameraman suffered from a broken nose, a broken rib and bruises all over his body. Furthermore his left eye got bruised and was severely swollen. Yılmaz underwent treatment in the Marmaris State Hospital.

Kanal 48 General Director Cemal Balcı filed a complaint with the two aggressors at the Marmaris Gendarmerie Command on the grounds of the attack against reporter Yılmaz. An investigation into the matter is being carried out. Democratic Party (DP) Mayor of İçmeler Zeki Eren stated, "We are going to investigate who dropped the rubble and will punish the responsible people accordingly".

■ 27 journalists listed in "Sledgehammer" coup plan file complaint: 27 journalists filed a criminal complaint in the scope of the "Sledgehammer"coup plan, which was allegedly worked out by 1^st Army Commander Çetin Doğan. A total of 36 journalists had been mentioned in the plan to be arrested, 27 of them filed the complaint after their according announcement in a press conference on 28 January.

The plan was published by Traf newspaper on 21 January. Upon strong reactions in the country, Chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ and Secretary of General Staff Major General Ferit Güler had announced that the plan was not a coup plan but a "planning workshop". They had also said that the leakage of information was going to be investigated. The plan labelled 137 journalists as "to benefit from", whereas the names of 36 journalists were listed "to be arrested". Spokeswomen journalist Nazlı Ilıcak stated in the joint announcement that the time of military coups started on 27 May 1960 has still not come to an end. "The documents brought to light one after another make clear that the military is still severely meddling with politics in the beginning of the 21^st century".

■ Chief of General Staff Başbuğ and the patience of the army: On 25 January, General İlker Başbuğ, Chief of General Staff, commented the "Sledgehammer" coup plan which made the news of Taraf newspaper since 20 January and said, "Also the army has only that much of patience".

The "Sledgehammer" coup plan was plotted by a group of people within the armed forces in 2002/03. It was aimed at creating disorder in the country by bombings of mosques, crashing a Turkish jet plane and warplanes flying over the parliament, which should eventually lead to martial law and a coup.

■Ağca's bodyguards: After the release from prison of Mehmet Ali Ağca, murder of journalist Abdi İpekçi in the 1970s, Ağca's bodyguards threatened journalists when he left his hotel in Ankara. On 19 January, one of the bodyguards threatened the journalists as follows: "I will crush you, I will hit you and put you to sleep". When Ağaç changed vehicles on his way from the Ankara district of Eryaman to the district of Sincan, his bodyguards cursed at the journalists, "Don't come closer, damn you all, god damn it". When Ağca's brother Adnan Ağca was asked questions by journalists in the hotel lobby, he said, "Your capabilities do not improve. Compare yourself with the ones in Europe. Is there any need to read your news?"

■ Journalist attacked when he looked at a sign board: On 9 January, journalist Ozan Özhan was allegedly attacked by an anti-riot forces policeman when he was looking at a sign board on the wall of the former water depot reading "The Energy of 2010 spreads all over Istanbul" on Istanbul's centrally located Taksim Square. Özhan filed a criminal complaint with the policeman. The journalist went to the Beyoğlu Prosecution on duty the following day to present a report that confirmed beating marks on his legs and his ear. Özhan said he would follow up his criminal complaint.

Apparently, a police officer told the journalist "Don't wait, move on!" when he was looking at the sign board. Özhan replied, "I am a journalist and I live in Beyoğlu. What's the problem with my looking at the sign board".  "It is a problem for your security", the policeman responded. Özhan said, "If there is a situation that endangers the public security you have to tell me". Hereupon, the policeman cursed the journalist and said, "What are you talking about, damn it!" He pulled Özhan inside the shutoff and punched his ear and kicked his leg. Another police officer introducing himself as an inspector came to the scene and told the policeman, "This is the centre of Istanbul, what are you monkeying about with"?

Arrests and Detentions

Özgür Radion publication director Füsun Erdoğand and colleagues: On 26 March, the Istanbul 10^th High Criminal Court continued the trial against detained defendants Füsun Erdoğan, publication director of Özgür Radio, İbrahim Çiçek, Atılım newspaper general publication director, and publication director Sedat Şenoğlu. The three journalists are part of a group of 24 defendants in total, 16 of them detained, who were detained after an operation against the Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MKLP).

In the ninth hearing of the case, the court heard the statements of the Aydın (Aegean coast) Police Directorate Anti-Terror Branch deputy manager,Nurullah Karaoğlan, who participated in the raids on private homes in the Nazilli Ocaklı village in the province of Aydın. Police officers Cemal Arslan and Faik Şaşmaz from the Istanbul Anti-Terror Branch gave their statements as well. Defendant Elif Almakça was released pending trial after 3.5 years in detention. The coming hearing is scheduled for 29 July.

Arrested for banner: Ferhat Tüzer and Berna Yılmaz, two of the three young people who displayed a banner saying "We want free education, and we will get it" during the "Romani meeting" were taken into detention, the third person, Utku Aykar, was released. The young people posted the banner during a speech of Prime Minister Erdoğan. They stand accused of "membership of an illegal organization".

■ Destruction of a base station: On 5 March, the Istanbul 11^th High Criminal Court rejected the release of Atılım newspaper journalists Çağdaş Küçükbattal and Tuncay Mat. Both journalists stand trial for allegedly participating in the demolition of a base station in the Gazi district on the European side of Istanbul. Küçükbattal and Mat are in detention since 11 September 2009. A total of eleven defendants are tried, six of them detained.

In the indictment, Public Prosecutor Kadir Altınışık demands to prosecute Küçükbattal and Mat over allegations of "reinforcing coercion, violence or threat in the course of the incident", "membership of an armed organization", "damaging public property" and "opposing the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations". Küçükbattal and Mat stated for their defence that they followed the incidents as journalists.

Küçükbattal was doing an internship at Atılım newspaper at the time. He claimed, "I had a camera hung around my neck as you can see from the photographs in the file. It is very clear that the evidence presented are my notes for the news articles". The trial will continue on 28 May.

■ 31 years in jail for three books: On 25 February, the Diyarbakır 6^th High Criminal Court rejected the release of Bedri Adanır, the licence holder of Aram Publications and representative of the Hawar newspaper. Adanır was arrested on the order of the Diyarbakır Court after entering Turkey from Northern Iraq on 5 January. The publisher is detained in the D Type Prison in Diyarbakır since then. He stands accused of "spreading propaganda of an illegal organisation" in newspaper articles and three books, which include the defence of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, and of "praising a criminal". He faces up to 31 years imprisonment.

Adanır faces a court case for a book of Öcalan's speeches, entitled "On the Culture-Art Revolution", which was not given a revenue stamp by the Ministry of Culture and thus not published officially. Two other books, entitled "Democratic Civilisation" and "Freedom Sociology" also form part of the accusation. The publisher faces two accusations of spreading terrorist propaganda, three accusations of "praising a crime and a criminal" and one accusation of membership in an illegal organisation.

■ Journalist Duruoğlu free: Aylin Duruoğlu, publication director of the GazeteVatan.com website, and Mehmet Yeşiltepe, employee of the 'Revolutionary Movement' magazine, were released pending trial by the Istanbul 9^th High Criminal Court in the first hearing on 23 February. The trial is related to the so-called "Revolutionary Headquarters". The organization which calls itself "Revolutionary Headquarters" assumed responsibility for an explosion at the Istanbul building of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on 1 December 2008 which left ten people injured.

After ten months in detention, Duruoğlu said, "I was expecting a warning from the police instead of detention. My civic rights were violated".

Dancer Ceren Sütlaş, ship operator Selim Öztürk, lawyer Nail Arıkan, news editor Abdülselam Sultan, cameraman Muhammet Çetin, cinema and TV productions supervisor Melek Seven, courier İbrahim Şimşek and advertisement editor Metin Akdemir were released pending trial. Cinema and TV productions supervisor Melek Seven and another five people were kept in detention. The case was postponed to 29 June.

In the course of a police operation against the terror organization carried out on 27 April 2009, a police officer, a bystander and alleged terrorist Orhan Yılmazkaya, member of the Revolutionary Headquarters Organisation, were killed. Journalist Duruoğlu stands accused for "membership of an illegal organization" and faces imprisonment between 7.5 and 15 years. Yeşiltepe faces a prison sentence of up to 36 years.

■ Telephone conversations and appearance on Roj TV: DİHA reporter Hatice Özhan was detained on 19 February. Özhan had been taken into custody in Diyarbakır and brought to Ağrı (north-eastern Turkey) in the context of an investigation launched by the Ağrı Public Prosecution. The journalist is in the Ağrı prison because of alleged "propaganda for an illegal organization". The allegations are based on phone conversations with employees of the BDP Headquarters and on her attendance of a program of the Kurdish television station ROJ TV.

■ Kurdish artist Rojda: Kurdish artist Rojda, who was invited by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to attend a meeting on the "Kurdish initiative", was arrested in her home in Istanbul on 9 February. Rojda was taken to the Istanbul Courthouse on the grounds of alleged "propaganda for an illegal organization". The allegations are based on the Kurdish song "Heval Kamuran" the artist performed at a festival in Diyarbakır in the predominantly Kurdish south-eastern part of Turkey last year. The singer was released after she had given her statement at the Istanbul 13^th High Criminal Court in the presence of her lawyer Hüseyin Çalışçı.

The Diyarbakır Public Prosecution has filed a lawsuit against the artist on the grounds of the performed song. In an announcement Rojda said: "There are trials pending related to the songs I performed. We appear to be potentially guilty unless some laws are going to be amended. I will give my statements at all the trials. This time I was arrested because I did not receive a notification from court. I was not interrogated at the police station. I just made a short statement to the court".

KCK operations: Dünya Radio broadcasting director Kenan Karavil and Seyithan Akyüz, Adana correspondent of the Kurdish daily Azadiya Welat, are detained in the Adana Kürkçüler Prison since 10 December 2009 on the grounds of alleged connections to a terrorist organization. The journalists were arrested on 7 December. They were imprisoned upon the decision of the Adana 8^th High Criminal Court.

The police had raided the Adana representations of DİHA and Azadiya Welat. Karanvil was taken into custody in the Adana Gülbahçesi district. Gün TV broadcasting director Ahmet Birsin is in prison since 14 April under similar allegations. Birsin, Karavil and Akyüz have not been taken before a court since they were detained. Their lawyers can neither inspect the file nor the evidence because of a decision for secrecy.

No indictment has been issued yet concerning Birsin throughout the past year. The Diyarbakır Chief Prosecutor announced that the operation was aimed against an "eight members of the PKK as the Turkish Co-ordination Unit". The operation was supposedly based on the results of a one-year technical follow-up.

Vedat Kurşun, former editor in chief of the Kurdish Azadiya Welat newspaper, has been imprisoned since 30 January 2009 in the scope of trials under charges of "spreading propaganda for an illegal organization". The charges stem from news items related to the Kurdish question and the illegal PKK organization. Kurşun was arrested in the Atatürk Airport in Istanbul and taken to the Diyarbakir D Type prison. Kurşun stands accused of "assisting the PKK organization by spreading their propaganda and of handling stolen goods" and of "praising crime and a criminal" based on news items in several issues of the Kurdish daily.

■ Journalists involved in the Ergenekon case: The Ankara correspondent of Cumhuriyet newspaper, Mustafa Balbay, has been detained in the Silivri Prison (Istanbul) since 6 March 2009 because of alleged connections to the "Ergenekon terror organization". Balbay is facing a two-count aggravated life sentence of between 16 and 80 years under charges of the "attempted change of the constitutional order by armed force".

Balbay put forward that his notes were rearranged in a way that new evidence was created in the indictment. Balbay had stated at court, "I did not induce an armed uprising to the people, I did not even induce an unarmed uprising." Journalist Tuncay Özkan, detained defendant in the scope of the First Ergenekon indictment, also faces a two-count aggravated life sentence under charges of "Membership of an illegal organization and a coup attempt".

Aydınlık magazine writer, detained defendant Emcet Olcayto, is tried by the Istanbul 13^th High Criminal Court under allegations of "membership of an illegal organization". The case began on 20 July 2009. Former 1^st Army Commander retired General Hurşit Tolon and former Gendarmerie General Commander retired General Şener Eruygur stand accused of "leadership of the Ergenekon Organization and a coup attempt". The prosecutor demanded for each defendant 1,047 years of closed confinement and a 14-count aggravated life sentence.

The 40^th hearing held on 15 February was monitored by TGC President Orhan Dinç, Press Council President Oktay Ekşi, Turkish Journalists Federation (TGF) President Atilla Sertel, Izmir Journalists Association Vice President Ali Ekber Yıldırım and TGF (Journalists Federation of Turkey) Vice President Mehmet Ali Dim. Before entering the court room, Oktay Ekşi said, "We demonstrate our solidarity to our journalist friends".

Balbay and Özkan expressed their gratitude to the journalist organizations, saying that the facts of the trial did mostly not match up with the news in the media. Adil Serdar Saçan, Manager of the Istanbul Branch against Organized Crime, was released after 16 months in detention. At the same time, the court dismissed Balbay's and Tuncay's objections against their detention once more on 14 January.

The G-9 Journalists Platform, consisting of eleven professional press organizations, demanded the release of Balbay. The Platform announced, "While Balbay has been in prison for one year, the ones who wrote the diary and who allegedly are the main actors of imputing the coup allegations, are free of the 'suspicion of flight or concealing evidence'".

Members of the G-9 Platform are the Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS), the Turkish Journalists' Society (TGC), the Contemporary Journalists' Association (ÇGD), the Parliament Correspondents Association (PMD), the Photo Journalists Association (FMD), the Economy Reporters Association (EMD), the Diplomacy Reporters Association (DMD), the Association of Professional News Cameramen (PHKD), the Turkish Representation of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), and the Media and Communication Workers Union (Haber-Sen).

■ Conscientious objector Aydemir: Conscientious objector Enver Aydemir has been detained in the Eskişehir Military Prison (west of Ankara) since 21 January on the grounds of refusing military service because of his religious beliefs. His trial was continued on 9 February before the Eskişehir Military Court. The court handed a one-month disciplinary fine to Aydemir because he refused to wear prison clothes ever since he had not been provided with civil clothes for a hearing on 21 January.

Aydemir was initially arrested and detained on 24 December. Due to the disciplinary fine, he will not be able to see anybody but his lawyer for the duration of one month. The coming hearing was postponed to 22 April to hear statements of witnesses. At the same time, the investigation related to a criminal complaint filed by Aydemir based on torture allegations in the Maltepe Military Prison is being continued.

■ Releases: On 29 January, the Ankara 12^th High Criminal Court released Arts and Life magazine publication director Hacı Orman, who is also the head of the Foundation for Science, Education, Esthetics, Culture and Arts Research (BEKSAV), Democratic Radio employee İsminaz Ergün and Solidarity newspaper employee Emin Orhan pending trial. The defendants were detained because of alleged connections to the MLKP.

Detained defendant Uğur Ok was not released since he is detained in the context of an additional trial. The case will be continued on 30 March. The 25 defendants, 13 of them detained, are tried on the grounds of "membership of an illegal organization" according to article 314 of the TCK and "spreading propaganda for an illegal organization" as defined in the Anti-Terror Law.

The defendants stand accused of attending the funeral of Kutsiye Bozoklar in Ankara on 28 July and shouting slogans. Bozoklar was a writer for the Atılım newspaper and head of the Publication Commission of the Arts and Life magazine. The defendants were released from the Ankara Sincan F Type Prison.

Arrests at solidarity actions: On 6 January, the police intervened against a group of demonstrators that expressed their solidarity with conscientious objector Enver Aydemir who is detained in the Eskişehir Military Prison. The police was going to do an identity check. When participants of the demonstration refused to show their IDs, the police intervened against them. 20 people were arrested, among them conscientious objectors Halil Savda, Selçuk Akbıyık, Selen Tarikçi, Ferda Çakmak, Ezgi İslam and Aytekin Koçakın.

Aydemir was arrested when he was on his way to a workshop entitled "Not every Turk is born as a soldier" organized by the Bosporus University on 24 December in Istanbul. He was brought to the Maltepe Military Prison. He had told his lawyer that he was exposed to torture and beating in prison. He said he was forced to wear military clothes. When he refused to do so, the prison guards let him wait naked in a cold room for hours, Aydemir stated.

■ Protracted release: The release of detained journalist Erdal Güler was delayed to 6 September 2014. The owner and editor in chief of the Revolutionary Democracy newspaper has been in prison for the past two years under charges of praising publications about illegal organizations such as the PKK or the Maoist Communist Party (MKP).

Güler was arrested on 26 December 2007 and taken to the Amasya Prison in northern Turkey. His release was expected for December 2009. A certificate indicating the "date of expiration" of the sentence, which was given to Güler's lawyer Ümit Sisligün by the Kocaeli Prosecutor's Office, shows that the editor's release is not scheduled for the near future. The Prosecutor's Office stated that a fine of several thousand lira issued against Güler was changed to a prison sentence and, as such, a new release date of 6 September 2014 was set. Güler could be released on probation by 1 November 2012.

Güler has been charged, mainly under the Anti-Terror Law, with "praising crime and criminals" relating to a message, entitled "We commemorate Mahir Çayan and his comrades with respect", published in the April 2005 issue of the "Özgür Düsün" magazine, of which he is the editor.

■ Release of alleged KCK member: Postager website writer İsmail Yıldız was acquitted after giving his statement in the scope of a trial launched in Adana regarding charges of membership to the Union of Kurdistan Societies (KCK), the umbrella organisation that includes the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Yıldız was released from Metris Prison in Istanbul on 5 January.

Yıldız had been arrested when he was covering clashes in the Dolapdere district in Istanbul. He was kept in custody for one night in the Kasımpaşa Police Station and brought to the Metris Prison the next day (3 January). The internet writer was taken into detention because of his refusal to give a statement in the trial regarding a raid on recently closed Democratic Society Party (DTP) and other institutions conducted by the Adana police on 15 August 2008.

■ Approval from the Court of Appeals: The Court of Appeals approved the convictions of DİHA employees Ali Buluş and Mehmet Karaaslanwho were found guilty of "membership of an illegal organization". They had been arrested on 19 April 2007 and brought to the Mersin (eastern Mediterranean coast) E Type Prison subsequently. The Court of Appeals 9^th Circuit approved the 6 years and three months prison sentences imposed to DİHA reporters Behdin Tunç and Faysal Tunç. The journalists had been detained three years ago and the Diyarbakır 5^th High Criminal Court found both of them guilty of "assisting and providing shelter for the PKK organization".

The journalists were arrested and detained on 5 April 2007 and are still kept in the Diyarbakır D Type Prison. DİHA reporter for the south-eastern province of Şırnak, Haydar Haykır, was taken into custody in the district of Çizre (Şırnak) on 8 January 2008. He was detained and taken to the Batman H Type Prison four days later on 12 January. However, it has not been confirmed yet whether these detentions are related to "journalistic activities".

■ Prime Mininster's telephone conversations: Aydınlık magazine publication director, Deniz Yıldırım, and National Channel news editor, Ufuk Akaya, are detained in the Silivri Prison (Istanbul) since November 2009 because they allegedly got hold of records of PM Erdoğan's telephone conversations.

Both journalists stand accused of "membership of an illegal organization", "publicly exposing visual and sound records of private life", recording non-public personal conversations" and "illegally getting hold of and publishing personal data".

■ Detentions at demonstrations: DİHA reporter İsmail Eskin has been detained in the Kandıra Prison since 4 January (province of Kocaeali, east of Istanbul). Eskin, third year journalism student at the Kocaeli University, was detained by the Kocaeli 1^st Magistrate Criminal Court after covering a demonstration against detention conditions of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan on 29 November in the Topçular district of Kocaeli. He is charged with "making propaganda for a terror organization".

Eskin claims that he attended the event as a journalist. The decision was reasoned as follows: "Even though Eskin claims that he was on duty for the news agency and did not approach the crowd, the photographs show that he was not hindered and posed in an angry manner". A case was filed with Eskin in Istanbul under charges of "organizational activities" based on his pictures and news items.

Trials related to Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression

■ Postponed sentence for Nazlı Ilıcak: On 31 March, the Istanbul 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced journalist Nazlı Ilıcak to imprisonment of eleven months and 20 days under charges of "insult via the media" of Judge Osman Kaçmaz from the Sincan district of Ankara. The sentence was suspended. Ilıcak from Sabah newspaper wrote a column entitled "The President's Immunity", published on 25 May 2009.  The journalist had accused Judge Osman Kaçmaz from the Sincan 1^st High Criminal Court of behaving officiously and in an ideological manner. Kaçmaz intended to sue President Abdullah Gül in the context of an investigation into "lost millions", a corruption case from the 1990s.

Ilıcak wrote, "The judge form Sincan might behave ideologically; or as far as his conscience is concerned, he believed that immunity did not apply to Gül. But anyhow, looking at the discussion started off in the country, he says 'That's the last thing we needed' and at least I want to emphasize Osman Kaçmaz's officiousness".

The court initially decreed for a two years and two months' prison sentence under article 125 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK) on defamation. The sentence was then mitigated to eleven months and 20 days imprisonment. The judge decided for a "probation period" for the writer of five years. Aydın Doğan from the Doğan Group, Hürriyet newspaper writer Ertuğrul Özkök, the Media Association and the Turkish Journalists Society criticized the decision.

■ Compensation repelled: On 31 March, the Istanbul 3^rd Criminal Court of First Instance dismissed a TL 70,000 (€ 35,000) compensation claim withGünlük Evrensel ('Daily Universal') newspaper that had been filed for the newspaper's coverage of environmental damage caused by the Ovacık Mine in western Turkey. In its issue from 8 February 2009, the daily had reported about environmental damage caused due to heavy rainfalls by the Ovacık Gold Mine run by the Koza Gold Company in Bergama close to the Aegean Coast. Environmental activists had also formed an initiative.

Thereupon, the TÜPRAG Company filed a criminal complaint on the grounds of "harming personal rights by unjust allegations". At the end of the according investigation, a compensation case was filed against lawyer Arif Ali, former president of the Aegean Environment Platform (EGEÇEP), Bergama Environment Platform spokesman Erol Engin, Mining engineer Hasan Gökvardar and Evrensel journalist and reporter Özer Akdemir.

Lawyer Cangı said that the trial would provide a platform to assess the damage caused to people and the environment by the gold mine in Bergama. He argued, "From the beginning of the trial we said that it was unjust and opened to intimidate advocates of life. The court agreed with us".

■ Tried for speaking Kurdish: The Court of First Instance of Hakkari in the south-east of Turkey tries four politicians from the closed pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) on the grounds of having addressed their electorate in Kurdish in the run-up to the local elections on 29 March 2009. The second hearing of the case against Hakkari Mayor Fadıl Bedirhanoğlu, former mayor Kazım Kurt, former DTP Provincial Chair Fahri Kurtand former DTP executive Rahmi Temel was held on 31 March. The judge postponed the trial to 5 May to take the statement of Kazım Kurt.

■ Three-year sentence for Vedat Kurşun: On 30 March, the Diyarbakır 4^th High Criminal Court handed down a three-year prison sentence to detained Vedat Kurşun, former editorial manager of the Azadiya Welat newspaper publishing in Kurdish, on the grounds of "spreading propaganda for the PKK". The court based its decision on articles published in the newspaper's issues of 11 and 12 August 2007.

Reasons for Kurşun's conviction were several items published in the issue of 11 August 2007. Those were the announcement of the death of Mazhar İlbasan, Demirci Taştekin and Vural Soydemir, members of the People's Defence Forces (HPG), an armed wing of the PKK, as the result of clashes in Tunceli; a poem for PKK members written by Nesih Özcan and a notice saying "We are educated in front of fighters for freedom. The Patriotic 'Norşin' in Mersin". Further reasons were given based on the issue of the following day, since it included a long article about imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan with his photograph. The article reported about Öcalan's close co-operation with the PKK organizations PDK and YNK in Iraq, his opinion that it was impossible for these organizations to leave the PKK and that Turkey should understand this very well.

In the article subject to Kurşun's conviction, Öcalan said that help was needed for the Kurds to receive all their rights and that an alliance with Massoud Barzani and Celal Talabani would be formed in case the rights would not be granted. "If this does not work out either, we would address America and Israel", Öcalan was quoted.

■ Defamation of Fethullah Gülen: On 27 March, the Şişli (Istanbul) Criminal Court of First Instance imposed a TL 700 (€ 350) monetary fine on Cumhuriyet newspaper journalist Cüneyt Arcayürek. He was found guilty of insult of religious leader Fethullah Gülen. Arcayürek was presented by his lawyers Bülent Utku and Fikret İlkiz. The sentence was based on the article entitled "The Fethullah Gülen Germ" published on 20 October 2007. The prosecutor claimed that the words used by the journalist were humiliating and demanded his punishment accordingly.

The president judge sentenced Arcayürek to a monetary fine of TL 700 under charges of article 125/1-2 (Defamation) of the TCK. The judge did not postpone the sentence due to the nature of the punishment.

■ Tried for publishing statement of PKK executive: The Istanbul 10th High Criminal Court prosecutes Milliyet newspaper director Hasan Çakkalkurt because the nation-wide daily reported about an announcement of PKK executive Duran Kalkan which he had made to Fırat News Agency (ANF). Çakkalkurt and reporter Namık Durukan are facing imprisonment of up to 7.5 years under charges of "making propaganda for a terrorist organization". The trial was postponed to 20 April.

The newspapers officials declined a monetary fine to be paid in advance suggested by the court on the condition to drop the case. The prosecutor demanded to deprive both journalists of several civil rights. The case is based on a report about PKK executive Duran Kalkan's announcement entitled "Even a general amnesty will not make us put down our weapons".

Kalkan was quoted as saying, "The second man of the terror organization Duran Kalkan says that in case of a general amnesty the organization will not put down their weapons but they will commit to the responsibility", he neither said yes nor no to the allegations put forward in talks with the government. About Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal's announcement that 'in case they put their weapon down a general amnesty could be possible', Kalkan said, "The solution of the Kurdish question is not a question of general amnesty. The Kurdish people does not consider such a situation for the PKK and the guerilla. Even if a general amnesty would be granted also anticipating freedom for Apo [imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan], then the PKK would not put down their weapons but may consider declaring a ceasefire, but not to put down weapons, the guerrilla does not put down its weapons", Kalkan argued

In recent years, Sebati Karakurt, Hasan Kılıç and Necdet Tatlıcan from Hürriyet newspaper, Cengiz Kapmaz, Hasan Bayar and Ali Gürbüz form Ülkede Özgür Gündem newspaper and numerous other journalists were convicted due to interviews and news related to the PKK.

■ Spreading propaganda by performing Kurdish song: On 25 March, the 4^th High Criminal Court of Diyarbakır in the predominantly south-eastern region of Turkey handed down a prison sentence of one year and eight months to the Kurdish artist Rojda Şenses. Reason for the conviction is the song entitled "Heval Kamuran" ('Comrade Kamuran') Rojda performed at a festival in Diyarbakır in 2009. She was charged with "spreading propaganda for an illegal organization". Rojda filed an appeal. Thus, the case was transferred to the Court of Appeals.

■ "Separatist" fictional protagonists: After a change of prosecutors at the Istanbul 10^th High Criminal Court, the behaviour of the literary characters of the novel "More difficult decisions than death" written by N. Mehment Güler and published by Ragıp Zarakolu is seen as "disruptive".

In his final speech on 19 November, Prosecutor Mustafa Çavuşolğlu had demanded the acquittal of Zarakolu and Güler based on his opinion that "no elements of crime occurred". Nonetheless, in the latest hearing on 25 March prosecutor in charge Savaş Kırbaş reckoned the utterances of the protagonists to be dangerous and requested prison sentence for writer Güler under charges of "spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization". Both un-detained defendants are facing prison sentences of up to 7.6 years based on article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMY) because of the protagonists called "Sıti", "Sabri" and "Şiyar"

The defendants' lawyer Özcan Kılıç requested to have the literary quality of the work assessed by an expert but the court dismissed Kılıç's request. A final decision of the case is expected for the coming hearing scheduled for 10 June. Zarakolu said in the hearing, "When the case was opened, there was a cold strong wind blowing in the court room and also in the country. When our acquittal was demanded in November, the atmosphere was warm and soft. Today though a harsh wind is blowing again. I think the atmosphere of the trial reflects the climate of the country"

Compensation claim with bianet dismissed: On 23 March, the Ankara 25^th Criminal Court of First Instance dismissed a TL 25,000 (€ 12,500) compensation claim filed against bianet by police officer Muhittin Zenit. Zenit had made the headlines with a telephone conversation between him and Erhan Tuncel, a defendant in the trial on the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink

Zenit was at the Trabzon Police Intelligence when journalist Dink was assassinated on 19 January 2007. Half an hour after the murder, Zenit allegedly said in a telephone conversation with Tuncel, "So, they shot him directly in the head...That's the only difference. He wasn't going to run away, but this one did."

In case Zenit should appeal to the decision, the file will be forwarded to the Court of Appeals Law Office. The court had previously requested the Dink Murder file from the Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court. However, the court decided to refrain from waiting for a related response prior to the pronouncement of the judgement. Zenit had filed his complaint on the grounds of an article entitled "It was clear how he was going to be shot", published on bianet on 30 September 2007, and another one entitled "New Evidence in Dink Murder: We'll Talk to President Muhsin about Yasin", published on 28 April 2008.

Zenit's compensation claim of TL 90,000 (€ 42,850) filed with the Turkish news channel NTV was dismissed by the Court of Appeals of the 4^thCircuit. According to the decision taken in the end of December 2009, the Court of Appeals overruled the decision of the Ankara 1^st Criminal Court of First Instance for a partial acceptance of the compensation claim: "The publication of the conversation does not constitute a violation of the freedom of the plaintiff's private conversations. The news as the subject of this case is corresponding to the developments of the murder of Dink, which caused a strong echo in society, and to the stage of its trial. Therefore, the news remains within the limits of the right to inform and is in line with the law".

■Behramoğlu tried for criticism on Prime Minister: Poet and author Ataol Behramoğlu is facing a TL 20,000 (€10,000) compensation claim at the Ankara 15^th Criminal Court of First Instance on the grounds of criticism voiced as a guest of the CNN Türk program "Neutral Zone" broadcasted on 12 January. Related to the AKP elections Behramoğlu said, "I do not say that AKP will not hold the elections. Yet, in my opinion they did everything, visible and invisible, to prevent elections by illegal and anti-democratic means". Behramoğlu's case was postponed to 6 April.

Acquittal in book case: On 23 March, the Istanbul 9^th High Criminal Court announced an additional decision related to the case on the book "The Kırbaşı Raid" by Aram Publishing executive Fatih Taş. Taş had been sentenced to imprisonment of five months on 18 June 2008 under charges of "making separatist propaganda" and the sentence had been executed.

The court decided to cancel Taş's conviction based on article 6/4 and 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law and decreed for his acquittal.

Claiming that shopkeepers were made to chum up with the government: Columnist of the Gaziantep Hakmiyet newspaper, Murat Güneş, is tried at the Ganziantep 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance because of a column about Ömer Küsbeoğlu, president of the Gaziantep Association of Shopkeepers and Craftsmen Chambers (GESOB). Güneş wrote in his column that Küsbeoğlu, in his function as a member of the AKP Provincial Directorate, made almost 1,000 shopkeepers to chum up with the government.

The trial against Güreş  will start on 11 May. Newspaper founder Abdullah Sabri Kocaman is facing a compensation claim of TL 15,000 (€ 7,500) for the same article.

■ "Lost billions" caricature trial: The compensation case against caricaturist Halil İbrahim Özdabak from Yeni Asya ('New Asia') newspaper started on 23 March at the Sincan 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance. Özdabak faces a compensation claim of 20,000 Turkish Lira (TL) (€ 10,000) in the latest case launched on the grounds of the caricature. The illustration refers to President Judge Osman Kaçmaz of the Sincan (central Anatolia) 1^stHigh Criminal Court who intends to prosecute President Abdullah Gül regarding the investigation into "Lost Billions".

The caricature was published on 21 May 2009 and shows a person in a judge's robe on a podium positioned on a tank, ignoring the road sign to "Ergen" but instead following the sign to "Sincan Avenue".

Özdabak is prosecuted under charges of article 125 of the Turkish Crimial Code (TCK) under charges of "insulting personal rights", facing prison sentence of two years and eight months. Öydabak was also tried for illustrating Supreme Court Public Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya, who filed a closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and was depicted in the caricature as an owl in a judge's robe. The cartoonist was acquitted on 24 March 2009.

■ Compensation claim filed by AKP deputy: Adana MP Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) filed a case against journalist Hacı Boğatekin, owner of the Gerger Fırat newspaper. Boğatekin is facing a 10,000 Turkish Lira (TL) compensation claim (approx. € 5,000). AKP MP Fırat launched the trial on the grounds of an article entitled "Mercy Miro Mercy Piro" published on 20 September 2009. Fırat claims an "attack on his personal rights".

Three AKP lawyers filed the case on 29 December 2009 at the Gerger Criminal Court of First Instance on Duty. The first hearing of the case is scheduled for 13 May 2010. Adıyaman Journalists Association President Zeki Dışkaya will appear at the Adıyaman 1^st Criminal Court of First Instance on 5 May related to a TL 7,500 (€ 3,750) compensation claim he filed with the newspaper.

■Tuğluk and Türk stand trial for "bringing soldiers in": The Ankara Public Chief Prosecutor's Office launched a trial against former co-chairAhmet Türk of the dissolved pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and former DTP MP Aysel Tuğluk. Both politicians stand accused for "spreading propaganda for an illegal organization" on the grounds of their efforts to bring back to Turkey eight soldiers who were held hostage by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The indictment says that Türk and Tuğluk went to Iraq together with Siirt MP Osman Özçelik from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and Van MP Fatma Kurtulan. There, eight military soldiers who had been taken hostage by the PKK in the Dağlıca raid in October 2007 were handed over to them and brought back to Turkey. The indictment states that "the soldiers were handed over in Iraq at a place with members of the terror organization and a picture of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. At the same time, images containing organizational propaganda could be seen".

Both politicians will are tried under article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law at the Ankara 12^th High Criminal Court. On 21 October 2007, members of the PKK terror organization had carried out a crackdown on a police station in Dağlıca in the south-eastern province of Hakkari. 13 soldiers died, eight soldiers were taken hostage by the PKK.

■ Detention extended: On 19 May, the Diyarbakır 5^th High Criminal Court decided to keep former chief editor of the Kurdish Azadiya Welat newspaper, Vedat Kurşun, in detention till the hearing on 6 May. Kurşun has been detained since 30 January 2009 and is tried in 32 different cases. Court Prosecutor Yakup Yar demanded prison sentence of up to five years under charges of "propaganda for an illegal organization" on the grounds of criminal contents in a total of 103 issues of the newspaper. Furthermore, prosecutor Yar requested imprisonment of up to another ten years for "membership in an illegal organization".

Prosecutor Yar referred in his demand to certain terms used in the articles such as "Kurdistan", "guerrilla", "martyr", "leader of the Kurdish people" or "respectable Öcalan" besides the publishing of notes made during an interview with Öcalan, criticism of the conditions of detention in Imralı prison where Öcalan serves his sentence and announcements of PKK executives. Kurşun faces imprisonment of between 135 and 525 years.

Kurşun was arrested on 30 January 2009 at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul and subsequently detained because he had refused to testify in a trial. He was taken to the Diyarbakır D Type Prison. Until the hearing on 6 May, Kurşun will have been in detention for more than 15 months. The German Die Tageszeitung (TAZ) newspaper commented Kurşun's situation with an article entitled "Press freedom in Turkey, demand for 525-year prison sentence".

Tuğluk and Türk facing imprisonment of 115 years: The Diyarbakır Special Authority Public Prosecutor's Office prepared separate indictments for Türk and Tuğluk under charges of "spreading propaganda for the PPK", according to article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law. The prosecution demands 45 years imprisonment for Türk, Tuğluk faces prison sentence of up to 70 years. The prosecutor demanded punishment for both politicians under charges of "Membership of the PKK organization and committing crimes on behalf of the organization". According to the indictment, the allegations against Türk are based on his speeches made between 2006 and 2009 in Diyarbakır, Batman, Siirt and Mardin and on Roj TV broadcasted via satellite. Aysel will stand trial for twelve speeches made in Diyarbakır between 2005 and 2009 and related news published in the press.

■ Tried for taking photographs: Hürriyet newspaper reporter Nurettin Kurt and editorial manager Hasan Kılıç are tried for taking and publishing a photograph of Colonel E.Y.B. who gave his statement in the context of an alleged assassination plot against Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç. Both journalists are facing imprisonment of up to three years each under charges of "identifying public officials on anti-terror duties as targets for terror organizations" according to article 6 of the Anti-Terror Law.

Since the investigation into the assassination plot is still going on, the prosecutor has not yet clarified for which terror organization the colonel was supposedly identified as a target by Kurt and Kılıç. Kurt said in a press release on 17 March, "All over the world journalism means displaying this sort of investigation. I am astonished". Besided Kurt and Kılıç, the indictment also mentions that an investigation has been launched into Habertürk newspaper journalist Cemal Doğan and editorial manager İzzet Doğan.

■ "Insult" by quotation: SavasKarsitlari.org ('antimiliatrist.org') website official Halil Savda is sued under allegations of "insult" at the Beyoğlu (Istanbul) 3^rd Magistrate Criminal Court for his writing about Ahmet Ateşli published on 25 July 2007. The article entitled "Ağar: Allegations and beyond" was not written by Savda but published as a quotation from another source. The first hearing will be held on 21 July.

■ Trial on Qandil interview: The case against human rights advocate Hakan Tahmaz, Birgün newspaper editor-in-chief İbrahim Çeşmecioğlu and newspaper owner Bülent Yılmaz was continued before the Istanbul 10^th High Criminal Court on 16 March. Reason for the prosecution is the article entitled "Unilateral ceasefire amplifies the problem" published in the left-wing Birgün newspaper on 9 August 2008.

Tahmaz and the other two defendants carried out interviews with PKK leader on Qandil Mountain (northern Iraq). They are tried under article 6/2 of the Anti-Terror Law on "publishing declarations of terrorist organizations". Court Prosecutor Savaş Kırbaş demanded imprisonment of up to three years for Tahmaz and Çeşmecioğlu; Yılmaz is facing a monetary fine. All three defendants will prepare their final defence speeches for 1 June.

■ Demirer trial: Journalist Temel Demirer is sued for his statement that Turkish-Armenian journalist "Hrant Dink was not killed for being Armenian, but for recognising the genocide [of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915]." Journalist and author Temel Demirer is facing prison sentence of up to two years for his statement made the day after the assassination of Hrant Dink in January 2007. The trial was continued on 17 March. Saying "I do not let anybody call my state a murderer", Demirer tries to annul the approval for his case which was issued by Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin at the administrative court.

Upon the decline of the Administrative Court of the request to discontinue the proceedings, Demirer's lawyers appealed once more to the Regional Administrative Court on 29 January. The Ankara 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance has been waiting for a decision from the administrative court since 14 November 2008. Demirer is prosecuted under article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK). On 17 March, he appeared before the Ankara court and got to know that his file has been forwarded to the Ankara 11^th Criminal Court of First Instance. The writer's case will be continued on 20 May.

■ Korkmaz file dropped by prescription: The trial against Ersen Korkmaz, owner of the Democratic İskenderun newspaper, based on a news item entitled "The Kurdish leaders were taken and delivered to the Fascists" about a panel discussion organized by the Turkish Communist Party (TKP)was dropped by prescription. The Iskenderun 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance closed the case after it had been pending since 2002.

At the same time, TKP executive Necmettin Salaz avoided punishment. Both defendants were facing imprisonment of up to three years under article 159 of the former Turkish Criminal Court on the grounds of the article published on 1 September 2002. They stood accused of "insulting and ridiculing the military and the police forces".

■ Journalists in Adana: In the middle of May, the Adana 8^th High Criminal Court imposed a one year eight months prison sentence to DİHA reporter Murat Kolca. He was charged with "making propaganda for the PKK organization" while he was covering an incident in the Tarsus district of Mersin. The Adana 7^th High Criminal Court sentenced Azadiya Welat newspaper journalist Seyithan Akyüzy, correspondent for Adana, to imprisonment of six years and three months under charges of "assisting the PKK".

Another four defendants were convicted of the same charges in the scope of the trial against Kolca. Their lawyers criticized, "Today we saw once more that being a journalist in Adana started to become a crime in itself. If we cannot obtain a result within domestic law, we will seek our right at the ECHR. We will do everything we can to correct the decision".

■ Trial for actor: Haldun Açıksözlü, actor and director of the theatre play "Laz Marks" is sued under allegations of "insulting the prime minister" in the play after it was performed in Rize (eastern Black Sea coast). He was summoned to the Beyoğlu (Istanbul) 2^nd Magistrate Criminal Court to give his statement on 12 March. He faces prison sentence of up to two years and eight months at the Rize Magistrate Criminal Court on the grounds of an anecdote. The show has been on stage for one year in cooperation with the Leman Culture and 'Canşenlik' Actors.

Açıksözlü reminded the fact that the play was performed 122 times and stated:

"As a political stand-up, the play contains allusions to politics, irony and satire. Executives, politicians and everybody who is well-known has his or her share in this sort of criticism. Nevertheless, this criticism has nothing to do with insult. The writer of the play, Yılmaz Okumuş, the actor Haldun Açıksözlü and Prime Minister Eroğan are all from Rize. There is no reason for the prosecution of our play anywhere in the country, we are sued in Rize only. The reason for this trial is a joke I told, which in itself is a subject for a new play for me.

The director's lawyers Hüseyin Güçlü and Hakan Bintepe said, "The anecdote subject of the trial is part of an art work. Plucking one part out of the whole with a pair of tweezers cannot confirm whether an art work is insulting or not".

■ "Alienating the people from military service": Volkan Sevinç and another 18 people are tried for their support of conscientious objector Enver Aydemir who refuses military service for religious reasons. Sevinç was taken into custody at a support action in Ankara. The trial was commenced on 1 April at the Ankara 10^th Criminal Court of First Instance.

Sevinç is tried under charges of "alienating the people from military service" and "praising crime" together with defendants Kemal Bolat, Zarife Ferda Çakmak, Gökçe Otlu Sevimli, Selçuk Akbıyık, Haydar Uçar, İbrahim Kızartıcı, Cemil Cahit Selimoğlu, Halil Savda, Fatih Özkan, Zeynep Çiçek, Selen Ta-rıkçı, Kıvılcım İlbaşı, Güneş Selma Yıldız and Nisan Kuyucu.

■ Protest against decision for military operation in Iraq: On 11 March, the Magistrate Criminal Court in Tunceli in eastern Turkey decided that the term "Murderer Erdoğan", used in the context of a protest against military operations in northern Iraq, did not constitute a criminal offence. Kazım Tosun and Ufuk Kalanç stood accused of "insult" by reason of a leaflet distributed at the press release of a protest action against the decision for the military operation in October 2008.

The court acquitted Tosun and Kalanç and stated that "it was understood that the event was carried out on legal grounds despite the actions done by the defendants". However, the court decreed to confiscate the remaining 184 leaflets. Lawyer Barış Yıldırım emphasized at court that the statement on the leaflet should be assessed within the scope of freedom of expression and referred to relevant decisions by the European Court of Human Rights(ECHR). The ECHR previously accepted harsh criticism on politicians as part of freedom of expression.

Yılıdrım reminded the court of the case of Ekrem Pakdemirli, who was sentenced by Turkey for calling former President Süleyman Demirel "the fat guy from Çankaya" but later won his case at the ECHR.

■ "Obscene" contents: The case against Sel Publishing owner İrfan Sancı was continued at the Istanbul 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance on 10 March. Sancı stands trial on the grounds of alleged "obscene contents" of the three books entitled "The fairy's pendulum" written by Ben Mila, "The exploits of a young Don Juan" by Guillaume Apollinaire and "Letters of a Well-Mannered and Knowledgeable Bourgeois Women" written by French author P.V. published by Sel Publishing.

Sancı faces up to nine years imprisonment; interpreter İsmail Yerguz stands trial together with publisher Sancı regarding two of the three case files and faces up to six years imprisonment himself. Sancı's lawyer Adem Sakal criticized: "Writers, publishers and interpreters are still confronted with the threat of prison sentences because Turkey has not yet effected appropriate amendments in accordance with the legislation of the European Union".

Public Prosecutor Nurtem Altınok demands the punishment of the defendants under article 226/2 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK) as stated in the indictment dated 29 April 2009. Since the expected expert report related to the two books "The exploits of a young Don Juan" and "Letters of a well-mannered and knowledgeable bourgeois women" to be issued by the French Language and Literature Department and the Law Department of Galatasaray University had not yet been submitted to court, the trial was postponed to 25 May.

■ Monetary fine for Baydemir: The Court of Appeals of the 9^th Circuit approved the decision taken by the Diyarbakır 6^th High Criminal Court against Diyarbakır Metropolitan Mayor Osman Baydemir. Accordingly, Baydemir has to pay a monetary fine of TL 1,500 (€ 750) based on charges of "praising crime and a criminal".

The decision was taken on 10 March. Initially, the local court had sentenced Baydemir to imprisonment of one month and 20 days and converted the sentence into a monetary fine. The court was filed by the Public Prosecutor's Office under charges of "knowingly and willingly assisting an illegal organization". The charges were based on Baydemir's utterances made during an incident after the funeral ceremony of four members of the People's Defence Forces (HPG), an armed wing of the militant PKK, on 28 March 2006. The prosecutor stated that Baydemir intended to claim his stake with the HPG members by saying "Yesterday we felt sorrow for 14, today it is up to 15".

■ Acquittal for "God damn you": In the first hearing on 10 March, the Kadıköy (Istanbul) 4^th Magistrate Criminal Court decreed for the acquittal of 26-year old Alper Ateş who stood trial on the grounds of addressing Prime Minister Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan with the curse "God damn you". Ateş was indicted under article 125 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK) by reason of his saying, "Last week we could still brew our tea at home since we had a gas bottle. Now, the gas is finished and I am not ashamed to say: I go to my friend to take a bath. This is the way we live. The only thing I want to say is this: Tayyip, God damn you!"

Ateş uttered these words when he rose to speak as part of a public campaign called "The people's podium" organized by the Community Centres between 27 December and 3 January in central Kadıköy, a busy district on Istanbul's Anatolian side.

The defendant's lawyer Erkut Şahin quoted a news article published in Radikal newspaper on 20 December 2009 for his client's defence. The news article was about Ekrem Pakdemirli from Motherland Party (ANAP) who called the then President Süleyman Demirel "the fat guy from Çankaya".  Pakdemirli was initially imposed to a heavy monetary fine in compensation. Lawyer Şahin pointed out that, according to the article, those words had been accepted as part of "freedom of thought" by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2005.

The news article also mentioned the case of Süleyman Yurtdaş who stood trial at the Magistrate Criminal Court of Tunceli in eastern Turkey for his slogan "Erdoğan is a murderer". Yurtdaş was acquitted by the influence of the same decision of the ECHR.

Ateş indicated that he did not insult the Prime Minister but "depicted his own living conditions". The court decided for Ateş's acquittal reasoning that the defendant did not commit the crime imputed to him. High school student M.B.G., who made a similar speech in the course of the same organization, will have to appear at court for the second time on 5 April. The precedent decision of Ateş's acquittal will be presented to the court as evidence.

■ Trial with website: The lawsuit against former executives of the gunesincocuklari.com website, Ali Barış Kurt and Mehmet Nuri Kökçüoğlu, started on 10 March before the Ankara 17^th Criminal Court of First Instance. Kurt and Kökçüoğlu stand accused of "praising crime and a criminal", "inciting hatred and hostility amongst the public" and "alienating the public from military service via the media".

The allegations are predicated on certain contents of the website, i.e. the defence of the right to conscientious objection and on calling the people involved in an operation which left 12-year-old Uğur Kaymaz dead "murderer".

■ Trial against 54 mayors continues: The trial against 54 mayors of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) was continued on 10 March at the Diyarbakır 5^th High Criminal Court. The group of mayors is facing imprisonment of up to three years for each defendant. The mayors are tried under allegations of "makin propaganda for the PKK" on the grounds of their statement that they expected a satisfying announcement regarding claims that Abdullah Öçalan, imprisoned leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) had been poisoned in prison.

The mayors are indicted under article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law. The court decided to finish the hearing of all mayors and complete the case file. The South-East Journalists Association demanded in a meeting to have the allegations investigated by an independent commission.

■ Pinocchio tale going on for five years: Prosecutor Hüseyin Koçaslan demanded ten years imprisonment for journalist Yakup Önal of the local "Şarköy'ün Sesi" ("The Voice of Şarköy) newspaper for insulting mayor Can Gürsoy of the ruling AKP and two municipal council members, Olcay Yücel and Ercan Yücel. Önal had written an article entitled "Fairy tales for adults- Pinocchio and the nine dwarves". The case was continued on 10 May at the Şarköy Criminal Court of First Instance (province of Tekirdağ in Thrace) and postponed to June.

The court decided to send the case file to another expert. The newspaper had started a series called "President Pinocchio and the nine dwarves" on 20 July 2005. The story started, "Once upon a time...in a country, there was a president called Pinocchio in a coastal town called Sarki. Pinocchio had nine dwarves who approved all of his decisions like a suction pump."

■ Prosecution on World Peace Day: On 10 March, the case against the "Organization committee of the meeting for honourable peace" on the occasion of the World Peace Day on 1 September was launched at the Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court. The committee is charged with "PKK propaganda".

Defendants Mehmet Galip Ensarıoğlu from the Diyarbakır Chamber of Trade and Commerce, Edip Yaşar, Diyarbakır Branch President of the Municipal and Local Authority Trade Union (Tüm Bel-Sen), GÜNSİAD President Şahismail Bedirhanoğlu, Gün TV employee Rohat Emekçi, Health and Social Service Workers Union (SES) Diyarbakır Branch President Vahdettin Kılıç, Diyarbakır Medical Chamber President Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı, Human Rights Foundation (İHD) Diyarbakrı Branch Secretary Burhan Zorooğlu, Yol-İş Diyarbakır Branch President İbrahim Halil Öztopalan and Turkey Union of Chambers of Architects and Engineers (TMMOB) Diyarbakır Representative Selahattin Cengiz are facing prison sentence. The court is waiting for the transcripts of the speeches delivered at the meeting.

■ Collage artist on probation for five years: British collage artist Michael Dickinson was convicted by the Kadıköy (Istanbul) 2^nd Magistrate Criminal Court. The Court of Appeals had overruled the initial decision for his acquittal. Dickinson had been detained for a while because he had depicted President Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan as the pet dog of former US President Geroge W. Bush in one of his collages. He received a prison sentence which was converted into a monetary fine. Dickinson has been living in Turkey for 23 years and was faculty member of Yeditepe University (Istanbul).

The court of appeals said in the decision of reversal taken unanimously on 25 May 2009: "It is understood that the defendant is an English citizen who has been living in Turkey for 20 years and worked as a teacher at various educational institutes and universities. He had close experiences of Turkish customs and traditions and he was able to anticipate the affect of his action on the public".

Dickinson was sentenced to imprisonment of 425 days according to article 125 of the Turkish Criminal Court (TCK). He was charged with having insulted the Prime Minister in his absence by reason of his duty. The court ruled that Dickinson disregarded Erdoğan's "pride and dignity". The sentence was converted into a monetary fine of TL 7,800 (€ 3,900). The punishment will be lifted if Dickinson does not commit any other "crime" within the coming five years.

After the hearing Dickinson told the BBC: "Of course I am relieved. I did not know the outcome. But I still think that I am not guilty and I cannot say that my work will not be related to politicians in the future".

■ Journalist Ilıcak acquitted: On 9 March, Sabah newspaper journalist Nazlı Ilıcak was acquitted by the Istanbul 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance in the case related to an article entitled "Defamation of Efkan Ala" published on 27 November 2008. Ilıcak stood accused of insulting Republican People's Party Deputy Atilla Kart.

Public Prosecutor Atilla Ayvacı reminded the fact that Ilıcak wrote in her article that "Kart was insulted like a defamation and lying machine". Ayvacı  stated that in the context of the entire article, this was to be evaluated as harsh criticism, remarking that politicians and high-ranking executives could become the subject of heavy criticism. He demanded Ilıcak's acquittal. Court President Sevim Efendiler agreed, "Even though criticism might be degrading and humiliating, it is part of a journalist's duty. Politicians have to tolerate this. It does not violate the law".

■ Three months in jail for the term "respectable": The İskenderun (eastern Mediterranean Coast) 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced Democratic Society Party (DTP) İskenderun District Mayor Mahmut Aydıncı to three months imprisonment on the grounds of referring to Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), as "respectable". Journalist Ersen Korkmaz was acquitted in the same trial.

The decision was announced on 9 March. Both un-detained defendants stood accused of "praising crime and criminals" according to article 215 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK). The court took into account Aydıncı's "positive attitude throughout the trial" and mitigated the sentence to two months and 15 days before converting it into a TL 1,500 (€ 750) monetary fine. Newspaper owner Korkmaz and DTP district mayor Aydıncı are facing imprisonment of up to three years in another case on the grounds of an article including sentences such as "Closing Imrali Prison and its implementations should be taken seriously for the great contribution it would make to social peace" published on 18 November 2008. The trial was opened on 24 December 2008.

■ Acquittal in book case: Fatih Taş from Aram Publishing was acquitted in the case regarding the publishing of the book entitled "The water of Avaşin is blue" ('Mavidir Avaşin'in Suları'). Taş stood accused for "spreading propaganda for the PKK", the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party. In the hearing on 9 March, the Istanbul 9^th High Criminal Court concluded that Taş did not commit a criminal offence. At the same time, the prosecutor claimed to drop the case by prescription.

The publisher was facing up to 7.5 years imprisonment under article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Act on the grounds of the book written by Selçuk Şahan. However, another twelve trials are pending against Taş.

Taş was acquitted in the case about his book entitled "Our language is our existence-Our language is our culture" (Dilimiz Varlığımız-Dilimiz Kültürümüzdür'). In the trial about "33 Days in the storm" ('Tufanda 33 gün') Taş was handed down a ten months prison sentence. He furthermore received a TL 7,782 (€ 3,700) monetary fine for his book "Signs to Ammar" ('Ammar işaretleri'). Both latter cases are pending at the Court of Appeals.

The publisher had to pay a TL 996 (€ 475) monetary fine decreed by the Istanbul 9^th High Criminal Court according to article 7/2 of the TMY on the grounds of the book "Gulen Azadiye".Taş was charged with "humiliating state institutions" by reason of the book "They say you are missing"('Kayıpsın diyorlar'). Applying article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK), the Istanbul 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced the publisher to a TL 650 (€ 319) monetary fine on 4 November 2008. The case is pending at the Court of Appeals.

The Beyoğlu (Istanbul) 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance had to drop a case related to Taş's books "The love crazed one from the mountain"('Dağın Mecnunu') and "Memories of a footpath guerrilla 4" ('Patika Gerilla Anıları 4') because the Ministry of Justice did not issue permission.

■ Prosecution of Fincancı and Yarkadaş: The trial against Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı, board chair of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation (TİHV) and Barış Yarkadaş, chief editor of "Gerçek Gündem.com" ('real agenda') website filed by Nur Bilgen, chair of the Institute for Forensic Medicine 3rd Specialization Chamber, was continued on 5 March. Fincancı and Yarkadaş are tried under charges of "Insulting a public official via the press" under article 125/1-2-4 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK) on the grounds of an interview carried out by reporter Başak Günsever on 22 July 2009. Both defendants are facing prison sentences of two years and six months each at the Kadıköy (Istanbul) 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance. The next hearing is scheduled for 21 June.

Fincancı stated, "As the TİHV board chair I criticized the structure and appointment criteria of the Forensic Medicine Institute. None of the facts I said would constitute an insult". Defendant Yarkadaş reminded the fact that the inverview was published during a time when the Forensic Medicine reports were publicly discussed. "The indictment quotes Fincancı's words as if I said them. This has to be corrected. The interview imputed to us does not constitute any element of crime", Yarkadaş said.

When Fincancı was asked in the interview how Birgen obtained her current position, she replied: "It probably was a reward for her loyalty". Fincancı  added, "There are investigations about reports made by the Medical Chamber Honor Council concerning torture because evidence of torture was hidden. Those reports probably gained her positive points on her record."

■ Violation of Demonstration Law: Şeyhmuz Akman, President of the Association for Learning, Science, Health, Education, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance (İrfan-Der), İbrahim Bahadur, Yusuf Aktay, İsmail Çevik, Mehmet Sadık Abdülhalimoğlu, Mahmut Kılıç, Veysi Boz andZeynettin Güler are facing imprisonment of up to three years at the Kızıltepe 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance (Ankara) under charges of violating the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations.

In the hearing on 5 March, Akman said, "In order to fulfil our duty as Muslims, we condemn treachery and massacres and performed the ritual prayers for the funerals of our martyr brothers in their absence. Our press release did not encounter any element of crime. We were even thanked by Police executives as if there was no problem at all. So where is the crime in this now?"

Bahadur stated that the Prime Minister and political parties even condemned the people living in Palestine. The association held a funeral prayer on 10 January 2009 for the 1,400 Palestinians who died in an attack of the Israeli Army. İrfan-Der also issued a related press release the same day, Bahadur said.

■ Alleged membership of three organizations: The former İHD Adana Branch President, Ethem Açıkalın, eventually took refuge in Switzerland after he stood trial under allegations of being a member of three different illegal organizations on the grounds of his condemning human rights violations. Açıkalan participated in a press release organized by representatives of the Adana Rights and Freedom Front (HÖC) in the Adana İnönü Park on 13 December 2007 to protest the murder of Kevser Mızrak, alleged member of the leftist militant Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C). 4 days after Açıkalan attended the meeting he was arrested. After 5 months in detention he was released pending trial.

Subsequently, charges were pressed against Açıkalın in three separate cases related to his alleged membership of the DHKP-C, the PKK and the MLKP. In a total of eight trials filed against him, Açıkalın stands furthermore accused of "making propaganda for the PKK", "inciting the public to hatred and hostility", "resistance against a civil servant on duty" and "opposing the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations". He is facing a total of more than 30 years imprisonment.

In order not to be taken to prison again Açıkalın took refuge in Switzerland in November 2009. He is currently taking language courses in a refugee camp in Bern. The Adana 1st Criminal Court of First Instance found him guilty of "inciting hatred and hostility" in a single hearing on 27 October. Reason for the conviction is a broadcast of Roj TV on 29 November 2008 where Açıkalan had criticized the legal proceedings regarding children who were arrested and received severe sentences for attending protest actions. Açıkalın was handed a 3-year prison sentence

■ Reader's comment: Gerçek Gündem.com ('Real Agenda') internet news site publication director Barış Yarkadaş faces a prison sentence of  five years and four months on the grounds of publishing a reader comment which allegedly constituted an insult to President Abdullah Gül. The first hearing of the case was heard at the Kadıköy (Istanbul) 7^th Criminal Court of First Instance on 3 March. Yarkadaş stated in the hearing, "We closed the site to postings of reader comments regarding Abdullah Gül in order not to face yet another court case. In a way we implemented auto-censorship". RSF said in an announcement that putting Yarkadaş on trial was an "attempt to oppress critics".

Gerçek Gündem.com had also published comments regarding Turkey uttered by Armenian President Serj Sarkisyan. Yarkadaş previously stood trial for posting a reader comment sent by a person alias "Türkeli27" saying that "Sarkisyan challenged Turkey due to the attitude of Gül".

Yarkadaş is tried under article 299/1 on "Insulting the President of the Republic". His lawyers Nalan Gonca Çelik, Metin Florinalı, Erdal Doğan and Sennur Beyboğa requested the acquittal of their client. Based on the principle of personal crime they demanded to drop the case. Yarkadaş claimed in the hearing: "We have no intention to insult the President. In fact, I did not commit the crime I am accused of. I am prosecuted for a comment that I did not write". The trial will be continued on 9 June.

■Trial against Boğatekin: On 2 March, the Adıyaman (south-east Turkey) Kahta Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced journalists Hacı Boğatekin to five years and Gergim.com website official Cumali Badur to six months imprisonment on the grounds of their statements about former Gerger prosecutor Sadullah Ovacıklı's alleged closeness to Fethullah Gülen. Gülen is the leader of the corresponding religious movement. Boğatekin was sentenced according to article 125 and 288 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK). Badur's sentence was converted into a monetary fine of TL 3,000 (€ 1,500).

In one of his articles, Boğatekin had referred to religious leader Gülen as "Feto". Subsequently, Boğatekin had also published prosecutor Ovacıklı's reaction to his article who apparently said: "How dare you calling the Prophet Fethullah Gülen Feto; you will apologize for that in the coming issue". Boğatekin was charged with insult, defamation and the attempt to influence a fair trial. The court did not consider suspension or conversion of the sentence into a monetary fine.

Hacı Boğatekin was arrested on 13 April 2008 and detained for 109 days in Kahta Prison. The latest decision deprived the journalist furthermore from most of his political and civil rights. His son, Özgür Boğatekin, was sentenced to imprisonment of two months and 17 days on the same day because he had intervened against police violence.

■ TL 1 compensation claim: On 1 March, the Izmir 6th Magistrate Criminal Court opened a trial filed by the Izmir Provincial General Assembly President Serdar Değirmenci and 48 deputies against Taraf newspaper journalist Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı and Milliyet newspaper journalist Hasan Cemal. Subject of the case is a compensation claim of TL 1 (€ 0.50) each. The judge decided to postpone the trial to 19 April in order to complete the file and acquire copies of the newspaper the column was published in.

Cemal had criticized an attack against a convoy of the Democratic Society Party (dissolved by the Constitutional Court in December 2009) in a writing entitled "Children in guerrilla outfits", saying "On one side there are children wearing guerrilla outfits, on the other side a flag hangs from the window showing Atatürk wearing a calpac. Where is the peace in this? Calpak and guerrilla, are these not both symbols of war?" Kütahya's article was entitled "Izmir, capital of fascism". He wrote, "Izmir became the capital of fascism. We are talking about a city with a disordered psychology where flags and pictures of Atatürk are permanently put up on the walls of homes and offices for years".

■ Criticizing a decision of the Court of Appeals: The Sabah newspaper writer for the Anakara supplement and Yeni Asır newspaper journalistHüseyin Kocabıyık was sentenced to a monetary fine of TL 320,000 (€160,000) in compensation because he criticized the evaluation of Tercüman newspaper writer Servet Kabaklı's insulting statement about Prof. Dr Baskın Oran within the scope of freedom of expression. The decision was communicated on 25 February.

Kabaklı had used insulting terms such as "a flattered poodle wagging his tail when you put animal food in his bowl and call it a bone with flesh",  "a silly guy managing to keep himself awake", "idiot",  "certified traitor" and "poor". Kocabıyık had criticized the article in an ironic column entitled "HSYK" (Supreme Board of Prosecutors and Judges). HSYK members filed a criminal complaint against him on the grounds of "insulting the personality of the institution and the judges".

In the first case, Kocabıyık was sentenced to a monetary fine of TL 280,000 (€ 140,000) in compensation. Subsequently, the Ankara 22^nd Civil Court of First Instance handed down a monetary fine of TL 80,000 (€40,000) to Kocabıyık upon a complaint filed by HSYK deputy member Fevzi Altınok.

Additionally, a trial was opened against him by the Ankara Public Prosecutor. Kocabıyık is facing imprisonment of up to nine years and four months under article 125 of the TCK (defamation). Subject of the trial is the article entitled "Shame on the ones who let him talk and listen to him" about Prof. Dr Baskın Oran published on 22 October 2004. Kocabıyık had criticized the Court of Appeals General Legal Assembly's decision towards freedom of thought with a majority vote of 20 to 23.

■ Eleven months and 21 days in jail for anecdote: On 24 February, the 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance of Milas (Aegean coast) handed down a prison sentence of eleven months and 20 days to Melih Kaşkar, editor-in-chief of the local Milas Önder newspaper. Kaşkar was convicted on the grounds of an anecdote about Prime Minister Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül published on 17 November 2007. The court stated that Erdoğan and Gül were called "dishonourable" in the anecdote. Kaşkar was initially sentenced to two years and two months in jail. Subsequently, the court mitigated the sentence to eleven months and 20 days due to "good conduct".

The court applied article 231 of the Criminal Procedural Law (CMK) and decided to suspend the pronouncement of judgement. Kaşkar did not accept the charges in his defence. He stated that the anecdote had previously been published in the internet and that he did not see a disadvantage of publishing it in the local paper. He did not intend to insult anybody, he claimed.

Coşkun Efendioğlu, publication director of the newspaper, said that the newspaper printed jokes sent in by readers every Saturday: "In fact, we are usually careful. But a joke that escaped our attention is no reason to go to court. The joke is actually quite a good joke. If we are sentenced, we will appeal, and if necessary, go to the ECHR."

■ "Insult": A trial against Haber 49 newspaper owner Emrullah Özbey has been opened under allegations of "insult" after publishing a news article entitled "A resignation full of speculations" regarding the resignation of Provincial Secretary General Ahmet Güngör. The next hearing at the Muş Magistrate Criminal Court is scheduled for 30 April. Özbey had asked questions about Güngör's resignation and about the advance payment of the construction of the Bulanık High School to the Muş Governor Erdoğan Bektaş who sent him answers to 15 of his questions. The Deputy Chair of the Democratic Left Party (DSP), Hasan Macit, presented an inquiry to the parliament with the request to have questions about this issue answered by the Minstry of the Interior, Beşir Atalay.

Özbey had furthermore reported about the "Signature Scandal" on 17 January 2005 concerned with the cancellation of an exam for disabled people with of a forged signature. The Court of Appeals Law Office handed down a monetary fine of TL 2,000 (€ 1,000) in compensation which was reduced to TL 1,000 (€ 500). Özbey paid the first instalment to complainant Saadettin Yıdırım, former National Education Branch Manager, on 22 February.

In the meantime, the State Council decided to appoint the disabled employees to their former jobs. Thereupon, the journalist wrote an article entitled "Yıldırm is still in office". Yıldırım filed a complaint and Özbey is tried once more at the Muş Criminal Court of First Instance under charges of "insult".

■ Kurdish politician Tuğluk acquitted: Aysel Tuğluk, subject to a political ban after the closure of pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), was acquitted of charges of "spreading propaganda for a terror organization" by the Istanbul 10^th High Criminal Court on 19 February. Tuğluk was tried together with İrfan Dündar and Fırat Aydınkaya, lawyers of imprisoned Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party(PKK). Both lawyers were handed down prison sentences of ten months each. The court decided to suspend the sentence on probation of five years due to good conduct and a clean criminal record.

Öcalan's lawyers Dündar and Aydınkaya were sentenced on the grounds of an article entitled "A chance for Öcalan" published in Özgür Gündem newspaper on 29 and 30 April 2009. The court mentioned that the article included statements made by Dündar and Aydınkakya such as "The lawyers conveyed Öcalan's opinion on the developments within KONGRA-GEL (PKK)", "He is experiencing the pain of change" and "Öcalan's opinions are important for an enduring peace".

■ 105 cases of "spreading propaganda": In a hearing held on 18 February, the prosecutor of the Diyarbakır 5^th High Criminal Court demanded a 105-fold prison sentence for journalist Vedat Kurşun, former chief editor of the daily Kurdish Azadiya Welat newspaper, under charges of "spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization". In his final request the prosecutor claimed that detained defendant Kurşun did not change the newspaper's publication policies despite 32 cases pending against the former chief editor on the grounds of 94 offences.

According to the final speech of the prosecution, the Kurdish daily allegedly published the agenda of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) ever since the newspaper had been established. The prosecutor claimed that many issues of Azadiya Welat published announcements made by senior executives of the organization as well as calls for PKK actions. Furthermore, it was stated in the speech that imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan had been mentioned as the "leader of the Kurdish people". Reiterating his defence presented on 20 September 2009, Kurşun requested his acquittal and release.

■ Journalist Sağlar acquitted: On 18 February, the Beyoğlu (Istanbul) 2^nd Civil Court of First Instance acquitted Birgün newspaper writer Fikri Sağlar of charges related to insulting PM Erdoğan and the former Chief of General Staff, Yaşar Büyükanıt in an article. Court Judge İrfan Adil Uncu declared, "Considering the article written by the defendant as a whole, it is a news item written in a harsh and striking manner which remains within the borders of commentary and criticism.

The indictment had described Erdoğan as the "complainant" and Büyükanıt as the "victim". It was based on the article entitled "Was the file given to Büyükanıt?"  published on 15 May 2008 in the Birgün daily. Sağlar wrote:

"I want to convey an utterance made by a law person who knows AKP very well. It is a piece of information on the meeting between the Prime Minister and Büyükanıt in Dolmabahçe Palace, which everybody was wondering about! The Prime Minister apparently gave Büyükanıt a file related to Mrs Büyükanıt's spending. The contents of the file were extremely frightening. Thus, the file could imply that the same will happen to Büyükanıt as what happened to Erdil Paşa before! [...] From that day onwards, Büyükanıt avoided statements that targeted the Prime Minister and the AKP. It is said that this is also the reason for Büyükanıt's decision not to prolong his duration on duty."

Sağlar received a monetary fine of TL 17,000 (€8,500) in compensation to be paid to Büyükanıt from the Ankara 1^st Civil Court of First Instance. TL 10,000 went to Büyükanıt and TL 7,000 to his wife respectively. However, the Court of Appeals overruled the decision and lifted the fine since they assessed the article on subject as within the borders of press freedom.

■ Politician Ayna forwarded what base said, journalists tried: On 17 February, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Mardin MP Emine Aynaopened a lawsuit against editor-in-chief Hasan Çakkalkurt and journalist Rıfat Başaran from the Turkish daily Radikal on the grounds of an interview given by Ayna.

Both journalist will be tried under charges of "spreading propaganda for the PKK organization", the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, in accordance with article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Act. The accusations are based on an interview with Ayna published in Radikal on 7 December 2009 entitled "Ayna: Our base tells us to go to the mountains". The journalists are facing up to five years imprisonment.

The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party was closed by a decision of the Constitutional Court on 11 December last year. DTP co-chair Ayna said in the interview, "All of us prepared our resignations. This prospect came up at our base anyways when the first closure case was opened. They told us 'What are you still doing in this Parliament? Resign and go to the mountains'. There is such a say at our base. It made us laugh at the time. But it expresses an emotion."

Hasan Çakkalkurt and Radikal newspaper journalist Namık Durukan face prison sentence on the grounds of their news item entitled "We do not put down our weapons even if a general amnesty would be declared" based on an announcement made by PKK executive Duran Kalkan to Fırat News Agency. The case is tried at the Istanbul 10^th High Criminal Court.

■ Three trials against Şener for one book: The Istanbul 11^th High Criminal Court tries Milliyet newspaper journalist Nedim Şener on the grounds of his book "The Dink Murder and the Intelligence Lies", in which he criticizes the Turkish gendarmerie, police and secret service in respect to the killing of Trukish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Şener stands accused for "publishing a classified document". In the hearing on 17 February, the 11^th court inquired information from the Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court where the Hrant Dink murder case is heard whether the "classified" document was read during one of the hearings.

The document emphasizes the claim that Head of Intelligence Department Ramazan Akyürek mislead Civil Service Chief Inspector Şükrü Yıldız, who accused the Istanul Police of having prepared a report with a previous date after the murder. Şener is facing imprisonment of up to 32.5 years in total related to three cases filed against the journalists on the grounds of his book.

Şener is facing 4.5 years imprisonment in a case at the Bakırköy (Istanbul) 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance because of violating a decision of secrecy by including floor plans as part of the Ergenekon file in the appendix of his book. The coming hearing will be held on 20 April. "I particularly wrote this book upon the motion of the inspection reports related to the neglect of public officials like Ramazan Akyürek towards religious murder. Which journalist asks for permission from court to obtain a classified document?" the journalist argued.

PEN Writers Union Secretary General Eugene Schoulgin, brother of assassinated Hrant Dink Orhan Dink, human rights activist Özlem Dalkıranand defendand Kemal Göktaş expressed their support for Şener by attending the hearing. The next session is scheduled for 28 April.

Schoulgin commented, "These trials cannot be perceived as separate cases. This is a demonstration of power against journalists. In the rest of Europe it is not a crime to write about this kind of cases. The different speed between the progression of the murder case and the cases of the journalists is most disturbing".

The criminal complaint against the journalist was filed by Ramazan Akyürek, then Chief of Police in Trabzon (Black Sea coast), Ali Fuat Yılmazer, C Branch Manager of the Police Intelligence, intelligence police officer Muhittin Zenit and Intelligence Branch Manager of the Trabzon Police Directorate Fatih Sarı.

■ Peace Groups on trial: On 17 February, the Diyarbakır Prosecution launched a trial with members of the peace groups that entered Turkey on 19 October 2009 via the Iraqi border. 26 refugees from the UN refugee camp in Mahmur and eight former members of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) crossed the border to south-eastern Turkey. 17 group members are tried under allegations of "spreading PKK propaganda" in a press conference held at the Human Rights Foundation Diyarbakır Branch.

Several group members delivered speeches at the welcome meeting in Diyarbakır on the evening of 21 October. They said that they had come upon the call of imprisoned PKK leader Öcalan. They demanded the publication of the road map prepared by Öcalan for the solution of the Kurdish question, the halt of military operations and opening the way to dialogue.

Mehmet Şerif Gençdağ from the group coming from Kandil had said that they came to seek a solution of the Kurdish question, "Our hands should not remain empty, this time we should hold on to peace. We say that war is not a solution. Everybody should read this message carefully. The way to dialogue and negotiation should be opened. We want to go on in honourable peace", Gençdağ had indicated.

■ Claim of Küçük dismissed: On 16 February, the Beyoğlu (Istanbul) 1^st Criminal Court of First Instance dismissed the case filed by detained Ergenekon defendant Veli Küçük against lawyer Erdal Doğan regarding a compensation claim of TL 10,000 (€ 5,000). Doğan's lawyer Nezihe Özer said that the case filed by the complainant was not justified and requested to drop it.

Judge Mehmet İlker decreed to dismiss the case, declaring that the decision could be appealed. The trial had previously been dropped due to irrelevance and was renewed within the time limit. On the day of the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, Doğan had announced on NTV, Habertürk and STV that Küçük wanted to become co-plaintiff of the trial against Doğan's client Dink under article 301.

Doğan said, "Veli Küçük submitted a handwritten petition to request co-plaintiff status. After that, Hrant was even more anxious and told his family, friends and me about it. Because Veli Küçük is not an ordinary person. Everybody knows that very well".

■ Tried for book about the "Hrant Dink Murder": On 16 February, the trial against Vatan newspaper journalist Kemal Göktaş started at the Istanbul 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance. He is facing a five years prison sentence by reason of his book entitled "The Hrant Dink Murder: Media, Judiciary, State". The book reveals background information on the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007. Lawyer Filiz Aydınrequested to drop the case by prescription, referring to the statute of limitation of the case initially filed by Intelligence Office President Ramazan Akyürek and the Police General Directorate.

Aydın argued, "The case should be rejected because it is time-barred. The case was opened on 30 September 2009. Yet, the prescription period of four months ran out on 24 August 2009. We will forward further requests later on". The case was postponed to 11 May to hear prosecutor Atilla Ayvacı's evaluation of the statute of limitation of the file in the next session.

Göktaş is put on trial on the grounds of publishing an F4 document in his book which was sent from the Trabzon Police Directorate to the Istanbul Intelligence Branch Directorate, concerned with Yasin Hayal being up to "an influential action" related to Hrant Dink. Göktaş was supported in the16 February hearing by Milliyet newspaper journalist Nedim Şener, facing trial for his book about the Dink murder as well, human rights activists Özlem Dalkıran and Füsun Çelikel and by Ani Aba and Takuş Kalk from the "Group of Hrant's Friends".

■ From the military court to the court of 1^st instance: The first hearing of the trial against Türkiye'de Cuma (Friday in Turkey) magazine journalistAbdurrahman Dilipak and 6 newspaper correspondents supposed to be held on 11 February after the case had been pending for more than 5 years. They are tried because of the articles "If the pasha does not listen to reason", "Undisciplined Pashas" and "The essential condition for the military is not secularism, it is patriotism", published between 29 August and 3 September 2003.

The case is heard at the Bakırköy (Istanbul) 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance with defendants Mustafa Karahasanoğlu, general publishing coordinator, responsible manager Cengiz Almış and newspaper staff Mustafa Hacımustafaoğulları, Hüseyin Arı, Yalçın Turgut andAbdurrahman Şeref Kazan.

However, the judge postponed the case to 21 May. The defendants were initially sued at the Kolordu Command Military Court under article 95/4 of the Military Criminal Code (ACK) on "harming inferiority-seniority relations". Due to amendments of the ACK, the file was brought to the Bağcılar Criminal Court of First Instance and from there transferred to the Bakırköy court. This time, Dilipak was waiting for the Bakırköy 2^nd and 17^thCriminal Court of First Instance to reach a mutual agreement. The indictment demands prison sentence between 6 months and 3 years for the defendants.

The indictment asks for prison sentences of between six months and three years for all defendants. The file had been sent to the ECHR due to the litigation at a Military Court.

■ 21 years and three months in jail for Kılınç: On 9 February, the Diyarbakır 5^th High Criminal Court sentenced Ozan Kılınç, concessionaire and chief editor of the Kurdish Azadiya Welat newspaper, to a total of 21 years and three months imprisonment on the grounds of "spreading PKK propaganda" in news items and articles in twelve issues of the paper. The court concluded that the contents of the Kurdish daily were opposing the Anti-Terror Act (TMY) and that Kılınç "committed crimes on behalf of an illegal organization although he is not a member of that organization".

The court decided to deprive Kılınç of civil and official services. Until the end of his sentence, the journalist will be deprived of his rights to elect and run for election and of his rights to carry out any duty in a political party, association, foundation, company, cooperative, union and freelance work or trading.

Lawyer Servet Özen had requested the acquittal of his client. The lawyer claimed that the news items and articles were written within the scope of freedom of expression. He furthermore stated that it was contrary to the law to impose separate penalties on each single issue. The court declined Özen's request. Based on the twelve June issues subject to the case, the court board decided for a six years and three months prison sentence for each article under charges of "committing a crime on behalf of an illegal organization without himself being a member of that organization".

Additionally, the court handed down one year and three months prison sentences for each of the twelve issues, summing up to another 15 years imprisonment. This means a total prison sentence of 21 years and three months for journalist Kılınç. Moreover, the court decided to issue an arrest warrant for the chief editor. The court did not apply any mitigation of punishment and decided that there was no basis for a suspension of the sentence or a conversion into a monetary fine. Journalist Özen declared to file an appeal against the decision.

■ Black Pink Triangle on trial: On 9 February, the first hearing was held in the case filed by the Izmir Governor against the Black Pink Triangle LGBTT Associaion. The case is based on allegations of opposing the "general moral" and the "Turkish family structure". Public Prosecutor Sami Dündar said in the first hearing, "This case should not be objected in a country where even political parties are being dissolved. It would lead to anarchy in this country if everybody could establish an association after one's own heart".

The European Parliament, Human Rights Watch and the Swedish LGBTT organization RFSL had sent protest notes in English. Judge Mürsel Ermiş postponed the case to 20 April in order to have the letters translated and acquire the association's file from the Associations Directorate.

No representative of the complaining party appeared at court. The hearing was attended by prosecutor Dündar, and the association's lawyers Senem Doğanoğlu and Fırat Söyle. The joint attorneys claimed that the case against the Black Pink Triangle organization was contrary to the constitution. The court postponed the evaluation of the objection to the next hearing.

The hearing was observed by representatives of Amargi Izmir, Amnesty International, the Embassies of Belgium and the Netherlands, the Human Rights Association Izmir Branch, Kaos GL, the Diyarbakır Hevjin LGBTT Formation, Pink Life and members of the asylum association Mülteci-Der. In a statement after the hearing, the Black Pink Triangle Association said that it was problematic to try this case in an environment where transsexual person Derya Y. was killed and where news about violence and murders aimed at LGBTT people were frequently on the agenda.

■ Two years in jail for writing on "irregularities": Journalist Fatma Sarıbıyık from the local Değişim ve Gerçek (Change and Truth) newspaper in Silivri/Istanbul received a two-year prison sentence for blaming Hasan Geyiktepe, former mayor of the closed Kavaklı Municipality, of irregularities. The decision was communicated on 5 February. Journalists issued a press release in front of the Silivri Courthouse on 9 February.

Gerçek newspaper owner Ali Tarakçi was handed down a monetary fine of TL 8,000 (€ 4,000) for publishing the news. The court converted Sarıbıyık's prison sentence into a monetary fine of TL 14,000 (€ 7,000). Geyiktepe received a monetary fine of TL 3,000 (€ 1,500) on the grounds of insulting the journalist. Sarıbıyık declared to file an appeal. "From now on, mayors can feel free to practice irregularities and corruption. I will not write one single word about it. I am informing about a robbing of the public and I am the one who is punished", the journalist said.

Subsequent to the press release, the group of journalists observed the case against İrfan Ermiş  from Yörünge newspaper tried in the Silivri Courthouse. The journalists continued their protest action the following day at the hearing of the case against Kaan Göktaş on 10 February.

Göktaş is tried in the context of a hand-written schema allegedly worked out by Tuncay Güney in the context of the Ergenekon indictiment. Göktaş is prosecuted because he pointed to the title of the scheme reading "Retired General, MHP Secretary General" and asked "Is this person Nursafa Pandar?"

■ Case for praising Kaypakkaya: Turkish folk singer Pınar Sağ and Mehmet Özcan are on trial because they allegedly praised İbrahim Kaypakkaya, founder of the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist Leninist (TKP/ML)-TİKKO organization. The case on charges of "praising crime and a criminal" was opened on 9 December 2009 because of a statement made at a meeting in Tunceli organized by the independent mayor canditate, Murat Kur, before the local elections on 29 March 2009. Sağ and Özcan are facing imprisonment of up to two years each.

The trial will be opened in May at the Tunceli Magistrate Criminal Court based on article 215 of the TCK. After her performance of a Turkish folk song, Sağ  had delivered a brief speech. She said, "To the comrades of Kaypakkaya, who always stood upright against the fascist government". Kaypakkaya had been injured in an armed conflict with the security forces in 1973. He was arrested and taken to the Diyarbakır Prison where he died of torture.

Özcan had also expressed his affection for Kaypakkaya. Sağ stated in her defence, "I was talking about the importance of peace and brotherhood. I had no intention at all to praise crime or a criminal. I expressed the feelings of an artist".

BDP Tunceli Deputy Şerafettin Halis addressed Prime Minister Erodoğan with the question, "Just like the current ban of concepts such as revolution, socialism or communism, is it not a contradiction that commemorating the leader of a revolutionary organization is accounted for as a crime while political parties are being founded in the names of these concepts?"

■ TL 624,000 fine for Vakit newspaper: Vakit newspaper is facing a TL 624,000 fine in compensation on the grounds of the column entitled "The country where people not even qualified as corporal become generals" signed by Asım Yenihaber. The case was continued at the Ankara 20^thCriminal Court of First Instance on 4 February. Newspaper lawyer Hacı Ali Özhan pointed out that five of the 312 generals who filed the complaint are defendants of the Ergenekon case. Şener Eruygur said that complaints should be filed with the newspapers so that they would be taken out of business. "Şener Eruygur and Hurşit Tolon should be heard themselves", the lawyer requested, yet the court dismissed the request.

Newspaper owner Nuri Aykon and alleged author of the column Mehmet Doğan stand trial under charges of "insult". Four former Forces Commanders are among the 312 complainants who claim that the column was written by former RTÜK member Mehmet Doğan. Additionally, Aykon, Doğan and chief editor Harun Aksoy stand trial under article 159 of the former TCK. The case was transferred from the Bakırköy (Istanbul) 2^nd and 16^th Criminal Court of First Instance to the Ministry of Justice by reason of clashing of authority.

■ Statement of former Head of Intelligence Department: On 2 February, the Istanbul 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance decided to hear former Head of the Intelligence Department Sabri Uzun as a witness in the trial against Milliyet newspaper journalist Nedim Şener. Şener is prosecuted on the grounds of his book "The Dink murder and the intelligence lies".

He faces a total of 32.5 years imprisonment in 3 different trials related to his book. Following the publication of the book, several police officers filed criminal complaints against the writer: Ramazan Akyürek, then Chief of Police in Trabzon and deposed from office as Police Intelligence Unit Chief in September, police officer of the Intelligence Office Presidency Muhittin Zenit, Faruk Sarı, Trabzon Police Intelligence Branch Manager and Ali Fuat Yılmazer, Deputy Chief of the Istanbul Police.

The journalist faces eight years in jail under charges of "attempting to influence a fair trial",  "violating the secrecy of information" and "insulting a public official because of his duty". The case is to be continued on 14 April. In his statement to the civil inspectors, Uzun said that a report entitled "Dink will be killed" dd. 17 February 2006 sent to the Trabzon Police Directorate when he was head of that department had been hidden from him.

Prosecution for terms of "Apo" and "Feto": The Court of Appeals Public Prosecution approved the prison sentence imposed to Gerger Fırat newspaper owner Hacı Boğatekin on the grounds of his using the terms "Feto" and "Apo". The Malatya 3^rd High Criminal Court had sentenced Boğatekin to imprisonment of 18 months because of his article dd. 4 January 2008. He was charged with "spreading PKK propaganda" because he had written that the Fethullah Gülen congregation was more dangerous than the PKK organization. Boğatekin furthermore was in the dock for his statement about former Gerger prosecutor Sadullah Ovacıklı's alleged closeness to Fethullah Gülen.

■ High School Students sued for "light bulb": High school students and community centre members Y.S., E.Ç. and A.S. will stand trial before the Bursa 2^nd Juvenile Court for an alleged decrial of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The students supposedly attended two protest actions where they compared Erdoğan with a light bulb in reference to the symbol of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). They came up with slogans like "Light bulb Tayyip sells education", "Light bulb Tayyip sells health", "Light bulb Tayyip", "American light bulb Tayyip" and "Collaborating light bulb Tayyip". The first hearing of the case is scheduled for 5 May.

The three juveniles face imprisonment for their slogans put forward on 1 October 2009 at the meeting of the "Platform for Health and a Secured Future for Everybody" in Bursa and in the course of protests against "IMF and World Bank" on 6 October.

High school student O.K. was tried before the same court and under the same accusations last year. He was found guilty in the last hearing of the case on 31 July 2009 and was sentenced to three months and 26 days of duty in a public institution. The prosecution defended the reasoned decision with citations from Google: "The term light bulb is a noun with roots in the French language".

"In its primary meaning it comprises a glass device that generates light by electric current within a vacuum (Turkish Language Association Dictionary 2005). In colloquial language however, the word can be used as a bad word or a curse (Google). In this context, it can be used in the meaning of 'peasant' or 'jerk' (Google)". "The term 'light bulb' might not imply the connotation of insult between two friends who are constantly teasing each other. Be that as it may, saying 'Light bulb Tayyip' in the course of a crowded protest action in the busiest places of the city does not account for criticism in the shape of political satire or communicating one's thoughts. This was said and meant as an insult".

■ Monetary fine for "Personal Insult": The Beyoğlu (Istanbul) 2^nd High Criminal Court handed down a TL 2,000 (€ 900) converted judicial fine to writer and journalist Yalçın Ergündoğan under charges of "violating the personal rights" of Haydar Baş, Chairman of the Independent Party of Turkey (BTP). The charges were based on Ergündoğan's writing entitled "Disciples revolted against Haydar Baş", published in Birgün newspaper on 26 April 2005. Haydar Baş, head of the Kadiri religious order, had filed a complaint with Ergündoğan on the grounds of his article with a TL 20,000 (€9,000) compensation claim at the Istanbul 7^th Criminal Court of First Instance. He had opened another case against the writer at the Beyoğlu 4^th Magistrate Court with a TL 5,000 (€4,500) claim for damages for mental anguish.

Ergündoğan was convicted in his absence according to article 125/ of the TCK. In an announcement subsequent to the hearing the author stated that he did not intend any defamation, "The behaviour of a public figure who is the leader of a political party should be brought to attention and criticism should be tolerated", Ergündoğan argued.

Ergündoğan's lawyer Tora Pekin did not attend the hearing either but presented his client's defence in writing. The lawyer said, "The Court of Appeals stated that the publication was done in a proper way. According to evidence included in the expert report the news item written by Yalçın Ergünddoğan was based on information taken from the internet site". Lawer Pekin reminded the fact that the referring topic was even brought to the agenda of the Turkish Parliament and that furthermore a public case was opened against Haydar Baş.

The Kars Kağızman Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced former Deputy Mahmut Alınak to imprisonment of five months on the grounds of a speech made during his candidacy for parliament which contained a total of seven words in Kurdish in the beginning and the end. On 27 January, Alınak delivered a speech which he started with the words "Bı-raemin, xuşkemin, xerhatin, serçeva hatin" (Welcome my dear brothers and sisters) and finished with ""Bijî azadî" (long live freedom). The speech, taking 33 minutes in total according to the police records, also allegedly contained an insult of the Prime Minister and thus was reason for an additional punishment. Alınak said, "It is not my nature to insult people. [...] I was criticized because of an issue of the Prime Minister". The court sentenced Alınak to jail for 17 months and 15 days; the punishment was later on mitigated to 14 months and 17 days. This means that he will be in jail for a total of 19 months and 17 days.

■ Ministry objected prosecution: The Ministry of Justice demanded the Court of Appeals to overrule a decision of a local court "for the benefit of the law" regarding the prosecution for journalist Can Dündar because of his documentary entitled "Mustafa".

According to the decision published on 20 January, the Ministry claimed the decision given by the Sincan 2^nd High Criminal Court to be in breach of the Criminal Procedure Law, the European Convention on Human Rights and the caselaw of the Court of Appeals.

The complaint against Düdar was filed by Ali Behram Şenbudak. The Sincan 2^nd High Criminal Court had decided to open a probe and a trial against Dündar.

■ Acquittal of "Inslut": On 20 January, the Adıyaman 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance acquitted writer Naif Karabatak of charges of "insulting a public official via the media" based on the article entitled "Where are the prosecutors?" published in the Güne Bakış newspaper on 28 February 2008. Karabatak was sued by the Adıyaman University Rector, Prof. Dr Mustafa Gündüz, because he criticized that young women covering their heads were not allowed to the university after an according amendment in the constitution.

■ Internet campaign"I apologize to the Armenians" not sued: The Court of Appeals 9^th Chamber decided that the internet signature campaign "I apologize to the Armenians" (Erminilerden Özür Diliyorum) does not imply any elements of crime.

On 18 January, it turned out that the Sincan 1^st High Criminal Court abode by the decision of the Court of Appeals. Thus, the decsision against a trial related to the campaign was approved.

The Court of Appeals had ruled that the campaign, initiated by Turkish intellectuals and supported by more than 30,000 people, did not contain any element of crime. The Ministry of Justice had applied to the Court of Appeals in order to overrule the local court's decision for the public benefit. The campaign was started in 2008 regarding the events in 1915 and caught on in various sections of society, supported by journalist Ali Bayramoğlu, Prof.Baskın Oran, Prof. Ahmet İnsel and Dr. Cengiz Aktar to name just a few.

The campaign sent the following message to the Armenian community: "I cannot reconcile my conscience to denial of and insensitivity about the great Ottoman disaster the Armenians were imposed to in 1915. I reject this injustice and share the feelings and grief of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them".

■ Prison sentence based on statement of confessor: The Court of Appeals approved the prison sentece of six years and three months imposed on DİHA reporter Rüştü Demirkaya by the Malatya 3^rd High Criminal Court. The sentence was based on the statement of a confessor named Engin Korcum.

The decision was published on 17 January. Demirkaya was arrested upon the statements of the confessor in 2006 and detained in the Malatya E Type Prison. He was then released pending trial and accused of "assisting and accommodating the PKK organization".

■Çongar and Altan facing prison sentences: On 15 January, the trial against Taraf newspaper general publications director Ahmet Altan and his deputy Yasemin Çongar was continued at the Kadıköy (Istanbul) Criminal Court of First Instance. They are tried on the grounds of the article entitled "Judges".

Altan is prosecuted for criticizing judge Osman Kaçmaz who intended to sue President Abdullah Gül. Furthermore he is tried because of comparing Atatürk to PKK leader Öcalan by quoting a 16-year-old in a program called "Political Square". Altan faces up to four years and eight months in jail under charges of praising crime and a criminal.

Çongra is tried on the grounds of an article entitled "Cemil Çiçek's way of thinking and a letter from Diyarbakır". She stands accused of praising the PKK and faces imprisonment of up to two years. In her statement, Çongar said that she had published the letter of a citizen who wants the war to end.

Lawyer Ergin Cinmen declared to apply to the ECHR in case his client should be convinced. Yasemin Çongar was acquitted in the case related to her criticizing the Court of Appeals Public Chief Prosesutor, Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya, on the website of Zaman newspaper. A total of eight cases are still pending against her and Altan, Cinmen said. According to the lawyer, the cases are concerned with criticism of politics, the judiciary and the army; furthermore with thoughts on the progress of the Kurdish issue and "disclosing state secrets".

■DİHA reporter sentenced to jail: The Malatya 3^rd High Criminal Court sentenced 27 people to 6 years and 3 months in jail each. Dicle News Agency (DİHA) journalist Ersin Çelik is among the convicts sentenced under charges of "membership to PKK", the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party.

The court took its decision in the last hearing on 14 January. The case was initiated upon the testimony of Recep Sade made in March 2008 and resulted in the conviction of 27 people of a total of 30 defendants. The lawyers of the defendants declared to file an appeal against the decision. They argued that the whole file indicates that Sade's statement was made upon the directive of the police. The attorneys claimed that the file does not contain any further evidence pointing to the alleged crime.

The 30 defendants were part of a group of almost 100 people being accused of membership to the Patriotic Democratic Youth Council (YDGM)which is connected to the PKK. The defendants were taken into custody in cities like Malatya, Elazığ, Erzincan and Tunceli on 31 March 2008. 24 defendants were released pending trial after two months.

■TL 16,660 fine for two writings: The Istanbul 11^th High Criminal Court ordered Devrimci Hareket ('Revolutionary Movement') magazine owner and responsible editor-in-chief Fehmi Kılıç to pay TL 16,660 compensation under charges of "spreading propaganda for an illegal organization" in two articles. The sentence was based on two articles published in the magazine's special edition entitled "Liseli Dev-Genç" magazine ('High school students revolutionary youth'). It turned out that the decision had been given on 30 December.

The court claimed that propaganda for the Turkey's People's Liberation Party-Front (THKP-C) and the Turkey's People's Liberation Army (THKO) was spread in the articles "It is a struggle for the youth of 'Liseli Dev-Genç' to handle their future" and "We commemorate Che" published in the youth magazine.

Court President Şeref Akçay had initially sentenced Kılıç to 1,000 days imprisonment converted to a monetary fine applying article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMY). Afterwards, the court mitigated the sentence to 833 days due to "good conduct" and converted the penalty into daily rates of TL 20 summing up to a total of TL 16,660 (approx. € 7,570).

The first article given as a reason for crime deals with the "persistency" of İbrahim Kaypakkaya and with the "guidance" of Mahir Çayan, both in their capacity as leaders of the revolutionary youth in the 1970s. However, a name of an organization is not mentioned in the article.

■Dilipak at Court of Appeals: The Court of Appeals General Assembly demanded the punishment of Vakit newspaper columnist Abdurrahman Diliapak on the grounds of his writing entitled "Sezer should apply henna". The column allegedly insulted Ahmet Necdet Sezer, 10^th President of the Turkish Republic.

The case will be re-tried at the Bakırköy (Istanbul) 16^th Criminal Court of First Instance on 20 March. The column was published on 9 November 2003, reading, "All right, we understood. You will not be able to solve the headscarf problem. We are the untouchables ourselves in this country. We are the dark-skinned ones. [...] We were expelled from the court rooms of the Court of Appeals after Çankaya. Sezer should sit down and apply henna. He started it. First he crashed the economy and then the man in Çankaya is in the forefront of unbelievable implementations which bombard social peace. The crisis initiated by Sezer has come to this point today". Sentences like these were taken as the reason for Dilipak's prosecution.

The Bağcılar 2^nd Civil Court of First Instance acquitted Dilipak. However, the Bağcılar Chief Prosecutor applied to the Court of Appeals 9^th Chamber. The chamber dismissed the appeal and approved the acquittal. Upon the appeal to the decision of the 9^th Chamber filed by the Court of Appeals Public Chief Prosecutor, the case was taken before the Court of Appeals General Assembly.

The General Assembly subsequently decreed for the punishment. The ECHR had questioned the cases filed against Dilipak on the grounds of the articles "No hard feelings"  and most recently "If the Pashas do not listen".

■Compensation claim dismissed: The Beyoğlu (Istanbul) 3^rd Criminal Court of First Instance dismissed the compensation claim filed by the Beyoğlu Üç Horan Foundation against the Armenian Agos newspaper. The foundation opened two trials against the Agos weekly because of published news articles about the elections in the foundation. Lawyer Simon Çekem, representative of steering board president Apik Harabetoğlu, demanded a compensation of TL 50,000 (€ 25,000) from the newspaper's publication director, Etyen Mahçupyan, and editor-in-chief Aris Naldcı.

The cases are based on the article entitled "Exam of choice" dd. 6 March 2009 and "Exam of choice in Beyoğlu" published on 13 March 2009. Reason for a trial and controversial discussions within the Armenian community were also the articles "Is this Ergenekon?" and "Whose stronghold are the Üç Horan?" published on 20 March 2009 and "Get it under control", "One more chance to Üç Horan", and "It is difficult to make those young ones understand", the latter one written by Yervant Dink, published on 1 June 2009.

On 29 December 2009, the court decided that the articles did not justify any compensation.

■ "Obscene" statue back in place: On 30 March it turned out that the Antalya 2^nd Administrative Court decided to put a statue back into place which had been removed by MHP Mayor Mustafa Gül after the local elections on 29 March 2009. The statue in the Kemer district was entitled "Rain of love" and found obscene by the mayor.

Sculptorer Zafer Sarı  stated at court, "The statue does not even have genitiles. A man lifts up a woman in a move of dignity". The artist's lawyer currently prepares a criminal complaint and a compensation case against Mayor Mustafa Gül.

■Publication ban: Azadiya Welat, a daily newspaper publishing in Kurdish, has been subjected to two one-month publication bans in three days under allegations of "spreading propaganda for the PKK". The Istanbul 12^th High Criminal Court had already decreed to stop the publication of the daily for one month on 27 March because imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan had been described as the "leader of the Kurdish people" in one of the articles. On 28 March, the same court imposed the same punishment on the same paper once more because of alleged spreading of propaganda.

As reasons for the publication ban the court quoted an article written by Medeni Ferho on page seven entitled "Hefteya Cengaweriyê Destana Azadiyê ye" ('Heroism week is the saga of freedom') and the article "Çîroka Berîtana Herokolî" ('The story of Herekoli Beritan') by Özgür Serhat. Moreover, the obituary of PKK member Fatih Çetin (Xemgin Amed) entitled "Bîranîn" ('Remembrance') published on page seven was given as the third reason. The Azadiya Welat newspaper was handed down a total of seven one-month publication bans within the past four years.

■ Academic investigated: The management of the Yıldız Technical University (YTÜ) launched an investigation into Assoc. Prof. Dr Ergun Aydınoğlu, member of of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. Aydınoğlu had talked about the Kurdish question in a television program. Thereupon, the investigation was opened because of his article where he supported Özgür Sevgi Göral who had not be appointed to the staff.

Aydınoğlu stands accused of "giving unauthorized information or statements on official topics beyond scientific discourse and publishings to news agencies and radio and television institutions". The accusations are based on the Disciplinary Regulations for Higher Education Institutions, Administrators, Faculty Members and Civil Servants which stem from the time after the military coup on 12 September 1980.

Göral was subject to an investigation because of a statement given on Skytürk TV in 2009. Göral had not been appointed to the staff because "he was not neutral and loyal to the state, he could not teach the students a service attitude connected to Atatürk nationalism and because he did not have the will power to strengthen the unity and the solidarity of the nation".

Aydınoğlu had written in an article published in Taraf newspaper, "[...] I was able to follow Göral's speech. After I heard what he said in the live program, I saw that Göral had not said anything different from what I have been teaching to my students at Yıldız Technical University for years. [...]"

On 8 January, YTÜ  students and members of the Students Youth Union Genç Sen organized a protest action and condemned the pressure applied against students and staff.

Corrections and Legal Redress

■ Acquittal for threats against Oran: A trial was opened at the Adana High Criminal Court regarding threats sent by e-mail to Prof. Dr Baskın Oran, former member of the Prime Ministry Human Rights Advisory Council (BİHDK). The e-mails were sent throughout the past three years on behalf of the Turkish Revenge Brigade (TİT).

Another case was opened at the Bolu Magistrate Criminal Court by the Ankara Police Directorate against a person from Bolu who had sent Oran a death threat. Oran's lawyer Oya Aydın argued, "The case was opened three years after we filed a criminal complaint because of increasing threats sent by the TİT".

The Ankara 9^th Magistrate Criminal Court confirmed the IP addresses of Kamil Sağlık, Dursun Kaya, Figen Arslan and Kezban Kılıç as senders of the threatening messages. However, the court acquitted all suspects due to lack of evidence. Furthermore, the Court of Appeals 4^th Chamber dropped the 12 cases opened till the present on the grounds of insult and cursing targeting Oran.

In a general evaluation, the 4^th Chamber reached the opinion that Oran should put up with criticism, "even though if that was voiced harshly", since he wrote about the Armenian issue and other minorities in the Armenian Agos newspaper.

■ Trial after reporting on forest fire: Mayor Arif Karatekin and his brother İlhan Karatekin are tried at the Adıyaman Greger Criminal Court of First Instance in the context of the attack on Hacı Boğatekin, owner of the Gerger Fırat newspaper. Boğatekin was beaten when he was about to take pictures of a forest fire at a waste dump on 28 July 2009. The hearing is scheduled for 25 May. The court requested the Gerger Municipality to describe the defendant's duty at the municipality and asked Boğatekin to report witnesses.

Boğatekin underwent medical treatment after the attack and filed a criminal complaint. Defendant İlhan Karatekin said in his defence speech, "I do not know where the injuries on his body come from. The camera fell down during a scuffle, I did not break it".

■ Newspaper owner assaulted: Yakup Önal, owner of the local 'Sesi' ("Voice") newspaper, was assaulted when he took pictures of a bus that had tipped over after an accident on 9 September. The incident happened in the Şarköy district of Tekirdağ, a city west of Istanbul. On 25 March, the trial against a driver and his assistant was opened. Önal's back was injured as a result of the assaults. He was treated in the Şarköy State Hospital and was not able to work for several weeks after the attack. The journalist complained at the district's Police Department. The attackers were released pending trial after they had given their statements to the prosecution. The coming hearing will be held on 3 June.

■ Journalist beaten: Defendants S.K., S.Y., L.Y., S.D., R.Y. and İ.Ç. are tried on the grounds of an attack against Durmuş Tuna, owner of the Söke Gerçek newspaper in Aydın (Aegean coast). The defendants have been detained for two months. Tuna was beaten in front of his 8-year-old daughter and 11-year-old niece by 8-10 attackers with rods on 6 July 2009. He suffered fractures in his right arm.

Tuna underwent medical treatment at the State Hospital. The Turkish Journalists Association demanded to find the perpetrators as well as the instigators. Tuna said, "The statement of the one who actually gave the order for the attack was not taken despite referring confessions. The case is not tried at a High Criminal Court because I was not beaten fatally".

The trial will be continued at the Söke Criminal Court of First Instance on 13 April.

■ Investigation into death threats to Ferhat Tunç: The trial related to e-mails containing death threats sent to singer Ferhat Tunç at the 2^ndMagistrate Criminal Court is progressing very slowly. The confirmation of the addresses of the defendants determined by a technical investigation is expected for the hearing on 25 February.

Tunç's lawyer Ercan Kanar demanded confirm the addresses of two defendants from the Pazarcıklı  district of Trabzon (Black Sea coast) and issue arrest warrants for them accordingly since they gave contradictory statements to the prosecutor.

Trial for assault of Kütahyalı: The public prosecution against Mustafa Kayatuzu, Provincial Chairman of the Istanbul Fighters Organization, is still pending. Kayatuzu stands accused of having attacked Taraf newspaper writer Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı on 11 April 2009.

Kayatuzu had entered the Kanal 7 building and attacked the journalist because he was angry about Kütahyalı's comments related to then BBP leader Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu who died in a helicopter crash.

■ Trilingual newspaper: On 22 February, the Van Times local newspaper started to publish in Kurdish, Persian and English apart from Turkish. General publications director Aziz Aykaç said that the newspaper is published partly in Kurdish because a considerable part of the population of the city of Van in south-eastern Turkey is Kurdish. The Persian language was added because of the high number of refugees in the region, English was chosen since it can be understood internationally.

■ 14 local radio and television stations allowed broadcast in other languages: On 23 February, the Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) decided to allow media institutions to broadcast in languages other than Turkish, The decision affects 14 radio stations and TV channels: Cemre FM (Mardin; Kırmançi and Zaza), Radyo Ses (Mersin; Kurdish, Zaza, Arabic), Radyo Net (Urfa; Kırmançı, Zaza, Arabic), Çağrı FM (Diyarbakır; Kırmançı, Zaza), Gün Radyo (Diyarbakır; Kırmançı, Zaza), Nur FM (Diyarbakır; Kırmançı, Zaza), Gün TV (Diyarbakır; Kırmançı, Zaza), TV 21 (Diyarbakır; Kırmançı, Zaza), Aktüel TV (Diyarbakır; Kırmançı, Zaza), Söz TV (Diyarbakır; Kırmançı, Zaza), Can TV (Diyarbakır; Kırmançı, Zaza), Can Radyo (Diyarbakır; Kırmançı, Zaza), Aktüel FM (Diyarbakır; Kırmançı, Zaza) and Aksa FM (Diyarbakır; Kırmançı, Zaza).

Mahmut Saruhan, Board Chair of Cemre FM in Mardin, said, "This right, which was given to private radio stations in recent years, should have been given years ago. Everyone should be able to listen to the music they want in their own language. The bureaucratic hurdles need to be lifted."

■TRT El Turkey: Journalist Şahiye Say from Hatay Samandağ (eastern Mediterranean coast) believes that the Arabic broadcastings of the Turkish TRT El channel could be very beneficial in case it reflects the prosperity of the society and the problems of the Arabs living in cities such as Hatay, Mardin and Siirt. After TRT Şeş started broadcasting in the Kurdish dialect of Kırmançı, the government initiated a Kurdish broadcast on Radio 6 on 1 April and broadcasting in Armenian on 2 April. Currently, TRT El Turkey prepares for a broadcast in Arabic. It turned out that news speakers of Aljazeera in Qatar were transferred to TRT El Turkey.

■ Investigation into threat dropped: The investigation into threats voiced by alleged member of the clandestine and illegal gendarmerie intelligence unit JİTEM, Orhan Tekin, launched upon a complaint filed by Sıddık Güler and Erdoğan Altan, DİHA reporters of the region of Van, was dropped. Tekin had threatened the journalists after a news item about incidents in Şemdinli (south-eastern Turkey) which revealed his membership of JİTEM.

The lawyer of Güler and Altan, Murat Timur, filed an appeal against the decision that was communicated on 24 January. Timur wrote, "Orhan Tekin called my clients from a number that is wiretapped by court decision because he was involved in low-down businesses. It is not convincing that Tekin denies the incident. If he did not call to threaten my clients, he should explain why he called at that time of the day. We request to launch a detailed investigation and open a trial".

■ Radio broadcast in four languages: Radio Ses, a local radio channel from Mersin at the eastern Mediterranean, is broadcasting in additional languages other than Turkish since 15 January this year after the restrictions on broadcasts in languages and dialects other than Turkish had been lifted. Radio Ses ('Voice') airs four programs in the Kurdish Kırmançi dialect, one in the Zaza language spoken by the Zaza people in eastern Anatolia and one broadcast in Arabic per week.

General broadcasting director Feride Bilgiç said that they took the decision to broadcast programs in these languages on 7 January. The first programs were aired on 15 January after having applied to the Radio and Television Supreme Council.

■ Police attack unpunished: An attack of the police on six journalists covering the Newroz celebrations in Yüksekova (Hakkari) on 23 March 2008, which left one person dead, remained unpunished.

İHA reporter Senar Yıldız was taken to the Yüksekova State Hospital after he had been beaten on his head with a hard object. He had x-rays taken and stayed under medical surveillance. DHA reporters Hamit Erkut and Erkan Çobanoğlu, AA reporter Necip Çapraz, CHA reporter Şevket Yılmaz and DİHA reporter Sami Yılmaz were beaten by the riot forces team and squeezed inside the crowd.

■ Plain clothes police officers acquitted: The Diyarbakır Criminal Court of First Instance acquitted the plain clothes police officers who attacked nine journalists who were investigating allegations regarding a ballot box that had been supposedly exchanged by a police officer after the local elections in March 2004.

Victims of the attack were Show TV reporter Şaban Boz, Söz newspaper and Söz TV reporters Beşir Arız and Faysal Karadeniz, Ahmet Bulut and Bayram Bulut, DİHA cameraman Mehmet Şirin Hatman and reporter Bahire Karataş and Gün TV reporter Fırat Düzgün. The attackers were acquitted unpunished six years after the incident.

■ Punishment for severe injury at the Court of Appeals: The file of Müslim Bartin who was convicted of severe personal injury is pending at the Court of Appeals. Bartin was sentenced on the grounds of severely injuring Andolu Agency reporter Necip Çapraz, owner of the Hakkari Yüksekova newspaper, in an attack on 22 September 2005.

The Yüksekova Criminal Court of First Instance had sentenced Bartin to imprisonment of five months and 25 years on 17 January 2007. The court had furthermore decreed for a probation period of two years.

The journalist appealed the decision because he deemed the punishment too little. Bartin on the other hand rejected the charges.

Reactions to Censorship

■ Gen. Başbuğ lectures media: General İlker Başbuğ, Chief of the General Staff, lectured the media on news about terrorism in his speech at the "Global Terrorism and International Cooperation Symposium".

Başbuğ said that the media is also a tool for struggles such as abolishing inequality in the military and in economy. He indicated, "Nowadays, we have got a global understanding of security. Of course we respect the freedom of news. Nevertheless, news and comments can also be harmful to society".

"Showing footage of terror on international TV channels can in fact be accounted for spreading propaganda of terror actions in the media. The context, the length and the number of repeats of the news is very important. News must be based on facts. Let us please not stretch a two-minute incident to a 15-minute news item. This serves the purpose of the terror organizations", Başbuğ said.

■ Babahan's descriptions: The former editorial manager of Sabah newspaper, Ergun Babahan, talked to Neşe Düzel from Taraf newspaper about "agent journalists" and the pressure of censorship during the time around 28 February 1997 when Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan was pressured by the military to step down as Prime Minister.

In the interview published on 15 March, Babahan said, "The intelligence institutions told the agent journalists to wear somebody out and they would wear that person out with allegations and accusations in their news and articles. At Sabah newspaper we were only aware of Ünal İnanç as an agent. It was known that Fatih Altaylı and Tuncay Özkan from the Hürriyet Group had connections to MİT [National Intelligence Agency]".

Regarding those journalists, Babahan recalled, "They had a discussion right in front of Mesut Yılmaz. They quarrelled about who was being paid and who was working on a volunteer base for MİT. Supposedly, some were paid and others were volunteers". Babahan also talked about how censorship was applied by the generals during his time as editor-in-chief.

■ USA Foreign Ministry Report: The section on Turkey in the Human Rights Report 2009 of the USA Foreign Ministry said about press freedom, "Prosecutors open many cases against writers, journalists and politicians in the scope of various regulations that restrict press freedom. However, the judges dismiss most of the allegations".

■ Freedom of Thought 2009: The Initiative against Crime of Thought carried on with its annual publication "Freedom of Thought", drawing attention to lawsuits, punishments, acquittals and obstructed publications and activities in the context of freedom of thought. The book is an annual review of freedom of thought in Turkey and of respective legal regulations and implementations.

■ Reporters without Borders: The international organization Reporters without Borders (RSF) added Turkey and Russia to their "under surveillance" list regarding internet censorship. "In Turkey, taboo topics mainly deal with Atatürk, the army, issues concerning minorities (notably Kurds and Armenians) and the dignity of the Nation", RSF indicated. The organization said that other countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Belarus and Thailand, "are also maintaining their "under surveillance" status.

RSF emphasized that "the fight for free access to information is being played out to an ever greater extent on the Internet. In Turkey, several thousand sites have been blocked, thereby triggering a great deal of protest. Bloggers and netizens who express themselves freely on such topics may well face judicial reprisals".

■ OSCE Report: According to the report, about 3,700 internet sites are banned in Turkey. Most of these sites are published abroad, deal with the Kurdish Question or the homosexual community. Access to the video sharing site YouTube has been banned since May 2008.

The report draws attention to access bans imposed to MySpace.com, the website of Günlük newspaper and Istanbul.Indymedia.org. Furthermore the report criticizes trials opened against Barış Yarkadaş from the Gerçek Gündem website and Ali Barış Kurt and Mehmet Kökçüoğlu from the Children of the Sun website. Moreover, it mentions punishments imposed on Hacı  Boğatekini from the GergerFırat.net website in Adıyaman and Cumali Badur from the Gergerim.com site.

The report also touches upon the release of Aylin Duruoğlu, publication director of the GazeteVatan.com website, and Mehmet Yeşiltepe from the Revolutionary Movement magazine after ten months in detention. Additionally, it refers to the hacking of the website of the Armenian Agos newspaper when a text was posted by the hacker(s) that praised the murder suspect of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

■ Accreditation for the Prime Ministry: On 26 February, the 10^th Chamber of the State Council told diplomacy reporter Sultan Özer to "wait for another month" regarding her accreditation which was banned by the Prime Ministry Press Centre more than one year ago on 10 November 2008. State Council prosecutor Yalçın Şahin said, "The accredited journalist is not a journalist of the Prime Ministry. It is up to the personal evaluation and that of the connected press or publication institute which meetings he or she is going to attend and which activities are going to be followed up".

Regarding a general application for the cancellation of the Prime Ministry accreditation procedure, the Ankara 9th Administrative Court decided for a lack of authorization and sent the file to the State Council. In the meantime, the same court decided to cancel the repeal of Milliyet newspaper journalistAbdullah Karakuş's Prime Ministry accreditation.

Besides Sultan Özer and Abdullah Karakuş, the accreditations of Hasan Tüfekçi and Turan Yılmaz from Hürriyet newspaper, Fatma Çözen from Star Television and Ali Ekber Ertürk from Akşam newspaper had been repealed as well in November 2008.

■İHOP advocates for "Mother tongue": On 21 February, Feray Salman, General Co-ordinator of the Human Rights Joint Platform, demanded to lift the restrictions put on articles 17, 29 and 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child regarding education in the mother tongue as soon as possible. Turkey approved the convention in 1990.

"Restrictions enforced for such a long time violate the core of the convention. The country should prepare suitable conditions as soon as possible to lift the restrictions. Taking the existing various mother tongues within Turkey into consideration, they should be taught during primary education".

■European Council Report: William Horsley, Media Freedom Representative of the European Journalists Association, prepared a report on "Respect to Freedom of the Media" for the Parliamentary Institution for Culture, Science and Education of the European Council. Horsley is also International President of the Centre for Media Freedom of the University of Sheffield and the United Kingdom.

According to the report, journalists in Turkey are confronted with punishment threats and the risk of trials due to numerous regulations that restrict/limit freedom of expression. The report criticizes, "Only in the year 2008, more than 100 journalists were the subject of criminal investigations because of talking or writing about sensitive political topics, disclosing alleged state secrets or criticizing the armed forces or higher orders".

■ Akbal's demand on TRT Şeş: In a program on the TRT Şeş (TRT 6) TV channel published in the Kurdish dialect of Kırmançi on 12 February, artist Nilüfer Akbal commented on the statement voiced by Kamer Beysülen from the Dema Nur newspaper who said, "They seized our book and did not give it back". Akbal interrupted the Kurdish broadcast and said in Turkish, "We want our books back, our culture, our intellectuals who rest in unknown graves, our great people".

■ Draft Resolution of the European Parliament: The draft resolution of Ria Oomen-Ruijten, rapporteur for Turkey in the European Parliament, passed through the Committee for Foreign Relations on 27 January.

The draft criticized the heavy fine imposed on Doğan Group and demanded to enforce a judiciary reform as soon as possible. It furthermore suggested the re-structuring of the Judges and Prosecutors High Council in order to grant neutrality and transparency.

The draft indicates, "The broad public discussion of traditionally sensitive issues such as the role of the judiciary, the rights of citizens of Kurdish origin, the rights of the Alevi community, the role of the military and Turkey's relations with neighbouring states was appreciated. The government deserves praise for its constructive role in the beginning of the discussions".

■ Criticism of the rector: On 11 January, Batman Express newspaper owner Mehmet Şah Ayaz and Yenigün newspaper official Yılmaz Ekincihad their finger prints taken at the Homicide Board upon a complaint by Batman University Rector Abdulselam Uluçam. Both newspapers had accused Uluçam for corruption preceding the complaint.

Rector Uluçam complained to the Batman Prosecution claiming that he had been sent one hand-written and one printed letter each containing insults and threats. The Prosecution appointed the Homicide Board team to take finger prints of the people Uluçam pointed out as suspects.

The group of "suspects" include Mehmet Şah Ayaz, who is Chairman of the Batman Financial Consultancy Chamber and owner and editor-in-chief of Batman Express newspaper, his son journalist Furkan Ayaz, journalist Yılmaz Ekinci and several heads of department from the university in Batman, a province in the south-east of Turkey.

■ Demirtaş proposes amendments: In January, BDP Diyarbakır Deputy Selahattin Demirbaş submitted a proposal for a legal amendment to the Turkish Parliament. He suggested that "death and other methods of punishments and the suffering of losses inflicted on a single person or a group of people by a bigger group of people motivated by political, philosophical, ethnic, sexual or religious reasons should be considered as crimes against humanity". He requested to evaluate lynch attempts in the scope of "crimes against humanity" as defined by the Turkish Criminal Code.

■ Documentation impeded: On 14 January, the screening of a documentary in memory of killed Turkish-Armenian journalists Hrant Dink organized by the Aegean University Faculty of Communication Studies Society was allegedly impeded by a decision from the dean, Prof. Dr Ahmet Bülent Göksel.

Hilmi Maktav, faculty advisor of the society, was planning to show the documentation on 19 January, the anniversary of the assassination. He said that he had been denied a room for the screening due to "security" reasons.

"It was interesting to hear the dean's concerns even before we had announced the event, Maktav said. Dean Göksel put forward that the initial application had not been made by Maktav himself and said, "We did not reject the event, we said that the timing was inappropriate because of the final exams".

■ OSCE spokesman on media freedom: "Pluralism in society guarantees freedom of press" said Representative on Media Freedom Miklos Harasztifrom the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the "Freedom of Media" conference held at Bilgi University in Istanbul on 14 January. He stated, "At a point where Turkey cannot be compared any more to the times of military administration, I nevertheless observe unwillingness towards full liberation. Although the government is aware of the discrepancy between article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK)and freedom of press, political reasons prevented the undertaking of measures".

Bilgi University Law Faculty member Prof. Dr. Turgut Tarhanlı indicated that OSCE does not only monitor violations of media freedom. Furthermore, the organization effectively puts forth the development of standards of media freedom in the perspective of commitments signed by the member states. Bilgi University faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yaman Akdeniz prepared a report on "Turkey and Internet Censorship"commissioned by OSCE. He called Turkey for reforms of law no. 5651 on the "Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by means of Such Publication" according to the proposals he made in his report.

In a brief summary of his report, Akdeniz drew attention to the internet site YouTube which has been blocked to access for one and a half years now. According to Akdeniz, YouTube officials refrain from opening an office in Turkey because "they do not want to deal with obstacles such as access bans and similar demands frequently issued by courts and the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TİB)". Akdeniz also reminded that apart from TİB's referring to "catalogue crimes" regulated in law no. 5651, access has been blocked to Özgür Gündem, Keditör, Günlük newspapers and websites belonging to Richard Dawkins by implementing regulations related to insult. Akdeniz claimed, "Law no. 5651 should either be revised or abolished".

■IPI called for freedom of journalistic work: On 10 January, the Day of Working Journalists, the Press Institution Association-IPI National Committee announced that 10 January is a welcome opportunity to make the voices of the journalists heard. The committee declared: "We call on the authorities to provide all necessary conditions for freedom of work for the journalists, freedom of expression and a life with economic freedom".

The committee listed several obstacles that prevent them from celebrating 10 January as a festive days: the murder of journalist Cihan Hayırsevenerfrom Bandırma (southern Sea of Marmara region) on 18 December; turning a blind eye to violence and threats against journalists; failed steps to counteract law articles that restrict press freedom.

The Turkish Journalists' Society (TGC) drew attention to the on-going custom of characterizing journalistic activities as crime. "The approach to ignore the truth persists, the truth that democracy can only be implemented with polyphony and freedom of expression"

■ Support for Tekel resistance: The Turkish representative of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), Doğan Tılıç, ÇGD President Ahmet Abakay, TGS President Ercan İpekçi, Haber-Sen Central Steering Board Member Osman Köse and numerous journalists supported the TEKEL demonstration by shouting slogans such as "The resisting worker never loses", "We will win by resisting" and "Long live class solidarity".

■ In memory of Metin Göktepe: A commemoration ceremony for the 14^th anniversary of the killing of Universal (Evrensel) newspaper reporterMetin Göktepe was held on 8 January at his grave. TGC President Orhan Erinç said, "The past has clearly shown that everybody needs freedom of expression. I have not lost hope that press freedom in real terms will be obtained. Our young colleagues continue their work to inform the public with their heart and soul, just like Metin Götepe".

Göktepe was arrested on 8 January 1996 in Alibeyköy while he was covering a news event. He was taken to the Eyüp Closed Sports Hall where he was beaten to death.

■ Lynch attempt in Edirne: Members of the People's Front started a sit-down strike in Instanbul on 7 January after they had not been allowed into the city of Edirne (western Thrace). A group of 15 young leftists had protested against the arrest of 3 friends in the city centre of Edirne in December 2009. The 3 friends were taken into custody for alleged membership of an illegal organization. A crowd of about 750 people had physically attacked the young protesters.

On 3 January, members of the People's Front wanted to go to Edirne in three busses in order to demonstrate against the lynch attack and the arrests. The busses were stopped by the police at the outskirts of Edirne and access to the city was denied.

Journalists expelled: The Mayor of Kars (north-eastern Turkey), Nevzat Bozkuş, had the journalists removed from the parliamentary meeting before he started the discussion of the annual auditing reports. He filed a criminal complaint to the prosecutor against six representatives of the local and the mainstream media by reason of "misconduct in office".

■ Hindering journalists upon prosecutor's decision: On 1 January, Hürriyet newspaper reporter Nurettin Kurt and Haber Türk newspaper reporterCemal Doğan were impeded from working in their profession by a decision from the Ankara Court House Prosecution.

Reason for the decision was the publishing of pictures of a colonel that was being arrested and interrogated in the context of an alleged assassination plot against Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç. The Press Council criticized the decision, "A ban is an arbitrary limitation and cannot be accepted".

European Court of Human Rights

ID check in Café: On 16 March, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) sentenced Turkey to a € 1,800 fine in compensation to be paid toAdnan Görkan, distributor of Evrensel ('Universal') newspaper. Görkan had been arrested by the police in June 2004 because of vending copies of the daily in a café.

The ECHR decided that "the 'invitation to the police station', which could be regarded as a restriction of liberty on account of its coercive nature and had not been based on any plausible or reasonable grounds, had likewise constituted interference with the applicant's freedom to impart information". Judges Işıl Karakuş from Turkey and Danutė Jočienė from Lithuania voted against the decision.

Görkan was asked for his identity papers by the police while selling copies of Evrensel daily in a café in June 2004. According to Görkan, the newspaper copies were seized by the police and he was taken to the police station. A superintendant from the police station stated that Görkan had not been held in police custody and that a couple of checks were going to be done. Görkan alleged that his detention in police custody for almost three hours had been arbitrary. The prosecutor declined Görkan's request to take action against the responsible people and decided to discontinue the proceedings. Thereupon, Görkan applied to the ECHR on 25 March 2005.

■ Convicted for speaking Kurdish: The Mayor Candidate for the district of Gaziemir (Izmir) Şeyhmuz Seyhan from the closed DTP, applied to the ECHR because of his eight-month sentence for speaking Kurdish in the run-up to the elctions. His sentence had been reduced to six months and the pronouncement of the judgement had been postponed.

For the dismissal of all charges, Seyhan was compelled not to speak Kurdish for five years. He had announced that in a time when the government took efforts to communicate the "Kurdish initiative" to artists, he was going to appeal the decision. Thus, he decided to apply to the ECHR.

■ Censorship for "erotic" book: ON 16 February, the ECHR convicted Turkey of a violation of freedom of expression in the context of the book "The Eleven Thousand Rods" (Les onze mille verges) by French writer Guillaume Apollinaire published in 1907. The book was censored in Turkey and its publisher, Hades Publishing owner Rahmi Akdaş, was convicted by a Turkish court.

The court declared that there nothing to say against the protection of moral values. Nevertheless, "Acknowledgment of the cultural, historical and religious particularities of the Council of Europe's member States could not go so far as to prevent public access in a particular language, in this instance Turkish, to a work belonging to the European literary heritage".

The ECHR pointed out that the requirements of morals depended on time and place and therefore national authorities were more competent to perceive whether restrictions were necessary. However, in this case it should not be ignored that the work had been initially published more than a century ago.

Since Akdaş had not requested compensation, the court refrained from sentencing Turkey to a compensation fine. Publisher Akdaş was sentenced to a monetary fine of 684 Turkish Lira (TL) on the grounds of "obscenity" and "harming inner feelings of the people" by publishing the work which contains graphic descriptions of scenes of sexual intercourse, even though it is a fictional work.

■ Kaos GL's pornography issue: On 8 February, it turned out that Kaos GL applied to the ECHR on the grounds of the seizure of the LGBT organization's magazine issue on the topic of "pornography". The issue had been seized by the government because of a "violation of the public moral".

The government stated at court that "in certain situations, freedom of expression may be restricted"  and that "the decision complied with the protection of the public morale". Claiming that no violation of the European Convention on Human Rights occurred, the government requested to dismiss the application by Kaos GL.

In July 2006, the Ankara 12^th Magistrate Criminal Court decided to confiscate the 28^th issue of the magazine of the Kaos Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association (Kaos GL) because it was found to "oppose the public morality".

The decision given by Judge Tekman Savaş Nemli read, "Some of the writings and pictures included in the issue entitled 'pornography' constitute a violation of the 'Protection of the Public Morality'". The picture on subject was a picture by artist Taner Ceylan entitled "Taner & Taner".

■€ 20,000 fine for slogans: On 2 February, the ECHR convicted Turkey of a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and decreed for a monetary fine of €20,000. The violation of the convention was based on the conviction of Esmer Savgın and Kerem Savgın because they had allegedly shouted slogans in favour of the PKK at the Newroz celebrations in 2001.

■ Suspension of newspapers: On 26 January, the ECHR sentenced Turkey to a total fine of € 43,500 in compensation in two cases concerned with one-month bans of five newspapers and the punishment of criticism related to prison operations respectively. The applicants were journalists fromGündem, Yedinci Gün, Haftaya Bakış, Yaşamda Demokasi and Gerçek Demokrasi newspapers and owner and editor-in-chief of the monthly Yeni Dünya İçin Çagrı ('Call for a new world') magazine Aziz Özer.

The ECHR once more handed down a sentence referring to article 6/2 last paragraph of the TMY, which provides the possibility to silence newspapers for up to one month. Against the opinion of 10^th President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, the Constitutional Court did not perceive the TMY as contrary to the Constitution.

The courts did not leave it with the publication bans. Furthermore, newspaper executives Lütfi Ürper, Ali Turgay, Hüseyin Aykol and Hüseyin Bektaş were facing imprisonment in the trials opened against them.

Özer was tried before the Beyoğlu (Istanbul) High Criminal Court for criticizing prison operations carried out in December 2000, leaving almost 30 inmates dead. In the magazine's February issue in 2001, the journalist described the operations as "barbaric attacks". On 20 February 2001, the Beyoğlu Magistrate Criminal Court seized that month's issue of the magazine.

Regarding the full publication ban imposed on the newspapers, the ECHR declared: "This went beyond any necessary restraint and amounted to censorship". Concerning the publications in Özer's magazine about the prison operations, the ECHR indicated that they were "of great interest to public opinion". The court stated that "the limits of permissible criticism are wider with regard to the government than in relation to private citizens".

■ KCK operations: On 19 January, the lawyers of 53 detainees, among them officials of the closed pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and Gün TV General Publications Coordinator Ahmet Birsin, applied to the ECHR. The detainees have been kept in prison for a whole year under allegations regarding urban settlements of the Democratic Confederation of Kurdistan (KCK), the umbrella organisation that includes the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).They have not been brought before a judge ever since.

Upon the directive of the Diyarbakır Public Chief Prosecutor's Office, former DTP deputy co-chairs Selma Irmak and Kamuran Yüksek were arrested together with another 51 people on 14 April 2009 in the course of an operation against the PKK organization. They have been detained in the Diyarbakır D Type Prison in the south-eastern Turkey.

Joint attorney Cihan Aydın said, "Neither have our clients been brought before a judge within a reasonable time, nor have we been informed about any evidence included in the file. In our opinion, the conditions of a fair trial were not fulfilled. As a last resort we applied to the ECHR".

Closure of newspaper office: The Çağdaş Tuzla newspaper, publishing in Istanbul, decided to apply to ECHR in order to bring former Justice and Development Party (AKP) mayor Mehmet Demirci to justice by reason of the unlawful closure of the newspapers offices. Demirci had the newspaper premises locked up and sealed on 26 September 2006.

Owner of Çağdaş  Tuzla ('Contemporary Tuzla) newspaper Halil Özen said that they took the decision to approach the ECHR upon the unlawful order of the Tuzla Public Prosecution to drop the case against Demirci.

The newspaper was closed under allegations of "unauthorized work in a vacant building" and resumed work upon a referring judicial decision. Issues regarding Demirci's religious perceptions and his implementations in the municipality were broadly discussed in the media in this context.

In the decision no. 2007/1369 the State Council 1^st Chamber requested "a preliminary review carried out by an authority in charge based on the documents and crucial evidence of the allegations, to establish a decision based on the outcome of the preliminary review report, lift the decision of the Ministry of the Interior and send the file after finishing these proceedings".

On 21 April 2008, the Ministry of the Interior issued permission to litigate Demirci, who affixed the seal to the newspaper's office, and the other municipality officials. A complaint of "misconduct of office" was filed against Demirci in the course of the developments. However, the case against the former mayor was dropped by the decision of Public Prosecutor Ali Bahadır on 14 October 2009. Hereupon, newspaper officials applied to the ECHR since domestic means of law had been exhausted.

Penalties of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK)

■ Showing cigarettes on television: Private television channels in Turkey are obliged to blur the vision of cigarettes in any broadcast. This includes movies and series as well as cartoons regardless of the year of production.

On 30 March, RTÜK imposed monetary fines of € 25,000 (TL 50,000) each to the channel Goldmax because of the movie "The Blues Brothers", to Moviemax 2 on the grounds of the movie "Getting Even" and to Actionmax for the film "48 Hours" by reason of displaying images of cigarettes. The decision was based on a violation of Law No. 4207 on Preventing the Hazards of Tobacco Products.

RTÜK claimed that the broadcasts opposed clause no. 6 of article 3 of the law, saying, "Tobacco products shall not be used or displayed in programs broadcasted on television, movies, series, music videos, advertisements and introduction films".

On 9 February, RTÜK decided for administrative monetary fines on the grounds of "not concealing the display of cigarettes" for Movimax (€ 75,000/TL 150,000 in total for three broadcasts), TL 50,000 (€ 25,000) each for Goldmax, Mymax, Kanal D, 24, CNBC-e, E2 and Yeşilcam TV and TL 1,000 (€ 500) each for Antep Mega TV and Kay TV.

■"Infidelity": RTÜK issued a warning to Haber Türk TV on 4 February because of the program "Hülya Avşar asks". The program discussed problems in marriage and infidelity. According to RTÜK, the broadcast "damaged the physical, mental and moral development of juveniles and children".

RTÜK dismissed the request by RTÜK member İlhan Yerlikaya to issue a punishment to Avşar because of the "public moral" on the grounds of her programs broadcasted on 22 November and 6 December 2009. Yerlikaya and his lawyer Mehmet Dadak referred to Law No. 3984article 4/1. The decision was taken by majority vote.

■Criticism voiced by Kamer Genç: On 28 January, RTÜK issued a warning penalty to the private Turkish television channel TV8 by reason of broadcasting criticism voiced by Independent Tunceli MP Kamer Genç on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Deputy PM and State Minister Cemil Çiçek. RTÜK announced that they do not declare anybody guilty before a definite judicial decision.

Genç was a guest in a program called "Let's talk about it" broadcasted on 19 November 2009. He said, "AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party] came to power; Tayyip Erdoğan and his environment plundered the state. There is no law any more, they abolished the judiciary. They directed the best part of the state to their own supporters.."

Genç had claimed that Cemil Çiçek's son in law and the son of the Prime Minister were involved in corruption related to TOKİ (Public Housing Administration) and bank credits. Genç had also mentioned the Light House Investigation.

RTÜK member Mehmet Dadak opposed the decision taken by the council on 28 January and referred to a dissenting opinion represented by the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). "The case law of the European Court of Human Rights allows broader criticism of politicians, the prime minister, ministers and members of parliament since this should be anticipated when being in the public eye". "I do not accept the decision regarding a violation since the person uttering the criticism was not a politician and the host cautioned the speaker once in a while. In my opinion the statement was made within the scope of freedom of expression".

■ Captain Haddock from Tintin to quit smoking: RTÜK demands "Captain Haddock" from the cartoon "Tintin" written by the Belgium artist Gerorge Remi 81 years ago to quit smoking. On 20 January, RTÜK handed down a TL 50,000 (€ 25,000) monetary fine to the TV8 channel for showing the movie on 15 November 2009.

The decision was taken by majority. RTÜK member Hülya Alp voted against it and A. Vahap Dareneli abstained from voting. The character of Tintin was created in 1929 and sold 230 million copies in 80 different languages until today. The television channels E2, Actionmax and Flash TV received fines of TL 50,000 each for the same reason.

For more information: BİA Media Monitoring Desk, Tel. (0212) 251 15 03, Fax (0212) 251 16 09, E-mail. hukuk@bianet.org