ECHR Rules Against Banning Newspaper For Publishing Imprisoned PKK Leader’s Statements

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decided that closing weekly “Yedinci Gündem” for one week for publishing statements from Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was a freedom of expression violation.

The ECHR finalized the complaint made by the owner of the newspaper, Hıdır Ateş, and its director in-charge, Hünkar Demirel, on December 9 and concluded that the conviction of the two journalists because of the news that appeared in June 2002 was a violation of the 10th article of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

ECHR: The journalists did not receive fair trial

The ECHR concluded that not serving the written statement of the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals to the complainants after the decision had been appealed was contrary to the principle of the just trial.

Basing its decision on the 1st article of the first protocol and indicating that the application for the “violation of the right of property” will have to be discussed separately, the ECHR rfined Turkey to pay mental anguish damages in the amount of 4000 euro to the two complainants and court charges in the amount of 2000 euro.

The ECHR sentences are on the rise

Although the latest BİA Media Monitoring Report on October 31 indicated that there was a decrease in the ECHR sentences, the cases for former Adana governor Sacit Kayasu and the Labor Party (EMEP) bulletins increased the number of the sentences against Turkey. (EÖ/TB)