"Express" Journalists Face Imprisonment for 'pro-Kurdish' Article

The Istanbul 11^th High Criminal Court Prosecutor demanded prison sentences for journalists İrfan Aktan and Merve Erol on the grounds of the article entitled "Weather Conditions in the Region and in Qandil / No Solution without Fighting" published in the Express magazine.

The Qandil Mountains are a rough terrain in northern Iraq where the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has established a number of camps, where several high-ranking members of the organization are located.

Aktan faces five years imprisonment, Erol a monetary fine of up to TL 20,000 (€ 10,000) for the writing that was published in the 99^th issue of the fortnightly magazine.

"Express does not spread propaganda"

The article shown as the reason of crime contained statements of a PKK/Kongra-Gel member and a one sentence quotation from the Özgür Halk ('Free People') magazine. These contents allegedly constituted a violation of article 7 of the Anti-Terror Act on "Spreading propaganda for an illegal organization".

The prosecutor based his evaluation on the opinion that the writing "encourages the readers to violence and shows resort to violence as a necessary and rightful measure".

The third hearing of the case was held on 5 May. The journalists dismissed the charges, stating that the entire writing reflects journalistic activities and that neither the journalists themselves nor the Express magazine made any kind of organizational propaganda until now.

"The public's rights to be informed"

The journalists presented similar interviews from the press. They emphasized that the interviews mentioned in the article had nothing to do with organizational propaganda but had to be seen in the context of the public's right to be informed about incidents and facts.

The journalists moreover drew attention to the fact that the article was written at a time when the discussions about the "Kurdish initiative" had just started and when PKK members had come from Habur to surrender. They said that the perception that violence had eventually come to an end for good could have been misleading while a part of the PKK was not ready to put down their weapons. The journalists indicated that the public had the right to be informed about this aspect as well.

The case was postponed to 4 June when the un-detained defendants and their representatives are expected to present their defence.

BİA: 6.5-fold increase in number of TMY defendants

According to the Media Monitoring Report published by the Independent Communication Network (BİA) Media Monitoring Desk on 2 May (available in English soon), a total of 103 people, including 15 journalists, appeared before the court in January, February and March 2010 based on charges related to the TMY.

The report reveals that in the scope of reporting about the Kurdish Problem the Kurdish newspaper Azadiya Welat was imposed to a two-month publication ban; Hakan Tahmaz from Birgün newspaper, Veysi Sarısözen from Günlük newspaper, Rıfat Başaran from Radikal newspapers and Namık Durukan from Milliyet newspaper face imprisonment.

Six people (Vedat Kurşun, Murat Kolca, İrfan Dündar, Fırat Aydınkaya, Ozan Kılınç and Fehmi Kılıç) were convicted according to the TMY and sentenced to 28 years and five months imprisonment and a TL 16,660 (€ 7,935) monetary fine in total. For the same period of the previous year, 16 defendants received prison sentences of four years and eight months in total. (EÖ/VK)