AGJPB Against the Indictment of Ozguden

A criminal court in Istanbul decided on 27 September, to indict Dogan Ozgüden, editor-in-chief of the Info-Türk news agency; Emin Karaca, a freelance journalist and writer, and Mehmet Emin Sert, editor of the magazine "Türkiye'de ve Avrupa'da Yazin" for "insulting the Army."

Last week, RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard noted in a letter to Justice Minister Aysel Celikel: "If these journalists are convicted of insulting the army, Turkey will have broken commitments it made to the European Union."

Dogan Özgüden is a member of the Belgian Union of Professionnel Journalists.

The Secretary General of the AGJPB, Mrs. Martine Simonis, has recently sent the Turkish Justice Minister Aysel Celikel the following message and said that she was going to inform both Belgian and European authorities on this situation and

on the grave threats against their member.

Mrs Aysel Celikel

Minister of Justice

Adalet Bakanligi

06659 Ankara

TURKEY

Brussels, October 23, 2002

Mrs. The Ministre of Justice,

The "Association Générale des Journalistes Professionnels de Belgique" (AGJPB-the Belgian Union of Professionnel Journalists) defends the moral and material interests of its members, holder of the Belgian title of professionnel journalist.

Mr. Dogan Özgüden is a professionnal journalist and is a member of our union. We have been informed that he is under threat of immediate arrest in Turkey, once again, as he has been charged with "insults to the army", on 27th September

2002, by the first penal court of first instance in Istanbul, based on item 159 of the Turkish penal law.

Press freedom and freedom of expression and opinion are the foundations of any democratic State. In the framework of the EU's Enlargement policy, your government has announced that it would halt this type of prosecution in Turkey. However, these new prosecutions against a journalist, due to the exercise of his profession and his freedom to think and write, obviously counter these declarations by your government.

Our union officially protests the charges against Mr.Özgüden by the Turkish judicial authorities. We will inform both European and Belgian authorities on this situation and on the grave threats against our member. (NM)