Rakel Dink Accepts IPA Prize
The ceremony was held on 15 June, and IPA president Ana Maria Cabanellas honoured Ncube for "his courage, his passion for publishing and his determination."
Rakel Dink attended the Cape Town book fair in South Africa to accept a prize in the name of her murdered husband. She said, "of course it makes me happy to receive this prize. It is beautiful to be considered important. For us the most important thing is to appreciate. Thank you very much".
According to the IPA's website, Rakel Dink said in her acceptance speech: "My husband has been a defender of the basic human rights and freedom and
he kept repeating that freedom of expression is the most important one. Also, he tried to reach to people's hearts in his own way to explain that the historical facts must be spoken and the pains must be shared. And this cost him his life.
[...]
Dear friends, the world has been witnessing similar ferocities since it's beginning.
One of these examples is the massacre in Malatya. With the pain of this event, we commemorated all those who suffered in the past. For instance, in 1915, one or two may have survived out of those big families. Moreover, the survivors were without their homes, lands, starving, bare and lonely... without a shoulder to put their heads on. They lived scattered, as a refugee, a concubine, without an identity. As I think of the difficulties they have been through my brain stops."
Reporters Sans Frontieres criticises Article 301
Meanwhile, the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has commented on the renewed use of Article 301 to continue court cases against writers and representatives of Hrant Dink's " Agos " newspaper : " Again, we are forced to condemn the use of Article 301 of the Penal Code to threaten freedom of expression ". RSF said that after Hrant Dink's murder, newspaper representatives continue to be tried for his comments on the "Armenian genocide" in an interview with Reuters News Agency. One of the Dink family's lawyers, Erdal Dogan, is now also on trial.
The trial concerning Dink's murder, in which 18 suspects will be tried (12 of them detained already), will start on 2 July in a Heavy Penal Court in Istanbul. The trial will be closed to the press. (EÖ/EÜ/AG/EÜ)