ECHR Interpret Limits to Freedom of Speech

Although Turkey is often convicted by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for violating the right to freedom of expression, the ECHR has decreed in the latest case that freedom of expression was not curtailed.

Hünkar Demirel, the manager of the weekly newspaper "Yedinci Gündem", had appealed to ECHR after being convicted for "aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation by spreading propaganda. In June 2002 hehad received a sentence of 3 years and 9 months imprisonment, later converted into a fine.

The cause of the trial was an article published in the newspaper in July 2001, in which Demirel was analysing "reasons for joining the organisation" (i.e. the PKK).

"Legitimising PKK rebellion"

Demirel appealed to the ECHR, arguing that he had not had a fair trial, that his freedom of expression had been curtailed, and that his right to property had been violated. The ECHR agreed unanimously that there were doubts about a fair trial with the State Security Court (DGM). However, it also argued that the article represented an incitement to violence, quoting sentences such as "If someone wanted to kill you, you would use legitimate self-defence," and "If the world is uniting against us, we will use our right to self-defence." According to the ECHR, the article was an attempt at "legitimising the PKK rebellion" and apologised violent and random acts of the organisation. The ECHR decreed that in the light of the agenda of the article, the received sentence was not excessive.

Turkey is to pay Demirel 1,000 Euros in legal costs.

In three cases decrees against Turkey

One the same day (14 June), the ECHR demanded a total of 5,250 Euros compensation payments for violating Article 10 in three separate cases.

* Managing editor of the pro-Kurdish "Yeniden Özgür Gündem", Mehmet Colak, had appealed to the ECHR because it was forbidden in September 2002 to distribute or sell his newspaper in the eastern provinces under emergency law, and because this procedure was not audited by the judiciary.

* Mehmet Selim Okcuoglu appealed to the ECHR after receiving a one-year prison sentence and a fine for "separatist propaganda" and "incitement to hatred and hostility" from the State Security Court (DGM) in September 1998. He had written an article in the Kurdish-interest People's Democracy Party (HADEP)'s newsletter, entitled "About the Court Case Against Our Leaders".

* Tuncay Seyman, editor-in-chief of the "Yeni Evrensel" newspaper, and Fevzi Saygili, the owner, were punished by the DGM in February 2000 for "inciting hatred and hostility" with their article entitled "The Kurdish Problem and the Struggle for Equal Rights". They too won their appeal to the ECHR.(EÖ/EÜ/AG/EÜ)