Turkey takes a small, painful step

Michael Hedges April 30, 2008

Turkey’s parliament debated long into the night and passed amendments to a notorious defamation law. Media watchers want more. Opposition politicians want less. Turkish media is tired of hearing about it.

Amendments to one section of Turkey’s defamation law were passed Tuesday (April 29) night after along and rancorous debate. Only parliament members of President Abdullah Gul voted for the changes.  Opposition political parties wanted provisions, and penalties, in the law to remain intact, if not strengthened.

The infamous penal code Article 301 has been an object of scorn from the European Union, media watchers and human rights observers since first the possibility of Turkey’s entry to the EU was raised. Bringing Nobel laureate novelist Orhan Pamuk to trial as well as threatening journalists and editors with jail time under the law added fuel to arguments of European politicians less inclined to admit Turkey to the EU. The European Commission listed 35 specific legal issues for Turkey to change, only 6 of which have come to parliamentary discussion. The onerous Article 301, proscribing jail time for “insulting Turkishness” or any part of the government, became a focal point for worldwide ire, which was magnified by the murder of journalist-editor Hrant Denk, who earlier had been convicted under Article 301, receiving a suspended sentence. 

In the amendment text, references to “Turkishness” were replaced with “Turkish nation.” Jail terms were reduced from three years to two years. Insults to Turkish institutions remain criminal but “criticism” in the media has been decriminalized. Added to the law is a provision for the Minister of Justice to approve any prosecution.

Opposition political parties, led by the Nationalist Movement Party, have been infuriated by the European Commission raising freedom of speech and press issues. They call it “interference” in national issues. The EC, particularly noting backpeddling by several of the most recent new Members on a variety of issues, sees it differently.

Other EU Member States have similar laws, note opposition politicians; France, the Netherlands and Germany. “But,” said MP Bekir Bozdag, “if you compare the number of prosecutions there and in Turkey, the difference is as big as mountains.”

Turkish daily Hürriyet suggested de facto decriminalization of defamation laws would eventually arrive since the amended sentencing provisions “open the way for the postponement of the prison term of those convicted under the Article 301.”

“Enough is enough,” wrote Posta columnist Mehmet Ali Birand cynically. “Why make so much effort to become civilized? Rest assured, I'm tired of it.”