Why don’t we see an inspiring sentence from Socrates, Kant, Spinoza, Dostoyevsky or a great number of others on official Turkish buildings? This would be a fantastic education for all of us, reminding that we are members of humanity, not only a nation.If I had the opportunity I would put a few quotations about freedom of expression on the buildings of the courts across the country. As you know, we still have a lot of problems when it comes to expressing ideas that are in conflict with the official ideology or official interpretation of history in Turkey.
We have some shameful bans; we cannot access YouTube, for example. Silencing and intimidating journalists through court cases is still a very strong tendency. It is quite ironic, but so many journalists are under prosecution because of news they prepared or columns they wrote about the Ergenekon case. These cases are brought against the journalists who fight against the gang, whereas pro-Ergenekon publications enjoy much greater freedom of expression and also make a fuss by their allegations that the Ergenekon case has turned Turkey into a republic of fear. Şamil Tayyar, from the Star daily, has just recently declared that he would cease writing his column due to the enormous number of criminal cases brought against him. He said there is almost one case pending for every single article he has written. Tayyar is most famous for his books and articles revealing the connections of the Ergenekon network.
We are in this shameful situation not only because of the prevailing mentality within the judiciary, which always opts for limiting free expression wherever it finds the opportunity to do so, but also due to this government’s gross negligence and unwillingness to change the articles and laws that limit freedom of expression in Turkey. As a result of this terrible combination of bad laws and extremely restrictive interpretations, we still have a serious freedom of expression problem.
I would like to put the following three quotations on courts and on some ministries’ buildings in Turkey.
The first one is of course from Voltaire, a famous one about the moral premises of free expression:
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
For those who imposed censorship on the Internet, a quote from American comedian Tommy Smothers: “The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen.”
We should also find a place for this magnificent quote from Noam Chomsky: “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”
But I should definitely put the following comment from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the Handyside v. United Kingdom judgment on the walls of every single criminal court in Turkey dealing with press and freedom of expression-related cases:
“Freedom of expression is applicable not only to ‘information’ or’ ideas’ that are favorably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the state or any sector of the population. Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no ‘democratic society’.”
Amongst all these pessimistic things I mentioned there has been a quite hopeful development very recently which somehow has not attracted the attention it deserves.
As you know, the infamous Article 311 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which concerns “denigrating Turkishness,” had been amended in 2008 and to introduce prior permission from the Ministry of Justice as a precondition to file a case under this article. Despite the harsh criticism coming from the EU and human rights circles, we could not get rid of this article altogether. However, the recent refusal of the Ministry of Justice to grant permission for further prosecution of editors of the Armenian Agos newspaper has sparked hope for the future of freedom of expression in Turkey.
The Ministry of Justice sent exactly the same paragraph quoted above from the ECtHR judgment to the prosecutors who had wanted to press charges against Agos and told them that the usage of the word “genocide” is within the acceptable limits of freedom of expression.
I really hope this interpretation by the Ministry of Justice will be the beginning of a new era in Turkey in which the limits of freedom of expression will be gradually expanded. I hope, after this comment, the government will review Article 301 and many other articles of the TCK to expand the limits of freedom of expression and bring Turkey into the first league of democracies.
