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Freedom of expression training not enough for judicial officials
Within the framework of an agreement between the EU and the Justice Ministry, 8,500 judges have been trained on the European Convention on Human Rights and European Court of Human Rights. An agreement with the United Kingdom provided training on human rights for 4,500 judges and prosecutors, while another 375 were educated on that topic in a project with the Netherlands. Since 2006, 150 high-level security personnel have been trained in the topic of freedom of expression. Moreover, more than 100 judges and prosecutors were trained at Bahçeşehir University.
The Justice Ministry had all the rulings of the European court translated into Turkish and put them in the judiciary regulations bulletin. Under the Project to Support Human Rights Reform in Turkey, the Justice Ministry had 450 judges and prosecutors and 180 inspectors trained on the European court rulings. About 60 inspectors even went to Strasbourg to observe the court at work.
Judiciary personnel were expected to be careful in their decisions regarding freedom of expression, but last year’s figures show a different picture as there were more than 4,000 court cases brought against journalists in 2009. That development prompted the government to broaden the context of freedom of expression.
According to the figures from the Human Rights Association (İHD), there were 387 convictions last year in conflict with freedom of expression. There are 36 journalists whose cases continue and who are under arrest.
Among those convicted are Star daily columnist Şamil Tayyar and Taraf correspondent Mehmet Baransu. Tayyar received a 20-month suspended prison sentence in the waning days of 2009 over his book on Ergenekon, titled “Operasyon Ergenekon” (Operation Ergenekon). The sentence will be dropped if Tayyar does not commit a crime in the next five years.
Baransu, who exposed a suspected military plot named the Cage Operation Action Plan, which outlined plans to assassinate non-Muslim community leaders, testified to prosecutors at the Kadıköy courthouse on charges of violating the principle of confidentiality of an ongoing judicial process and was transferred to the İstanbul 5th Criminal Court of Peace for arrest. The reporter was later released by the court.
Tayyar and Baransu are not the only journalists facing charges for covering stories like Ergenekon; Justice Ministry data show that around 3,000 journalists face charges for covering the Ergenekon case.
Publications of 31 newspapers and periodicals were stopped and 66 books were pulled off the market last year. Additionally, 4,662 Web sites were banned.
Parliament approved the long-awaited amendment to Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) criticized by rights groups, activists and the European Union for limiting free speech, so filing cases under that law was possible only with permission from the Justice Ministry. There were a record number of cases brought under Article 301, but thanks to that amendment, many were prevented from being carried out by the Justice Ministry.
2008 figures related to freedom of expression are not favorable, either. There were 12 newspapers and periodicals banned and 29 journalists were brought to court under Article 301.
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