8-Page Newspaper Banned for Contents of Page 9

The Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court closed the weekly Özgür Görüş ('Free Opinion') newspaper for the duration of 1 month under allegations of "including announcements of the PKK organization" and "making propaganda for the organization" in the issue from 17-23 October.

However, the court decision claims the allegations to be found on page 9 of the weekly newspaper which actually consists of 8 pages only. The court did not give any information whether the charges were related to an article or a news item or which article or news item constituted a crime.

Court holds on to TMY despite ECHR's conviction

Judge Gökmen Demircan did not only decide to collect all issues of the newspapers according to article 25/2 of the Press Law. He also applied article 6/last paragraph of the Anti-Terror Law (TMY) and banned the newspaper for a whole month.

TMY article 6/last paragraph was the reason why Turkey was convicted by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on 20 October earlier this week.

The ECHR decreed for a violation of freedom of expression concerning the complaint of 26 journalists and press employees of the newspapers Ülkede Özgür Gündem, Gündem, Güncel and Gerçek Demokrasi. The newspapers had been continuously banned for durations of up to 1 month and several people in charge have been tried.

The ECHR decreed for amounts between 5,000 € and 40,000 € per person in pecuniary compensation. Another 1,800 € in compensation concerning damages for mental anguish has to paid for each of the applicants plus the coverage of the court fees of 4,800 €. (EÖ/VK)