KHRP Calls for Lifting of Barriers to Freedom of Expression on the Third Anniversary of Hrant Dink’s |
Tuesday, 19 January 2010 11:53 |
Three years since the assassination of editor, journalist, and campaigner, Hrant Dink, obstructions to freedom of expression in Turkey persist, especially surrounding taboo issues such as minority rights and Kurdish cultural and linguistic rights. More widely, legal reforms related to EU accession have failed to curtail the arbitrary detention and prosecution of human rights defenders, writers, journalists, and broadcasters who advocate minority rights, to ordinary citizens who attempt to exercise their right to peaceful protest. The recent arrest and detention of Mr. Muharrem Erbey, Vice President of the Human Rights Association of Turkey, and the detention of more than 80 people as part of an operation launched simultaneously in 11 provinces of Turkey following the closure and ousting of the pro-Kurdish Demokratik Toplum Partisi (Democratic Society Party, DTP) from the Turkish Parliament in December, to the ongoing criminalisation and disproportionate use of force used against protestors, including children, underscore this only too well. ‘On the anniversary of Hrant Dink’s death, KHRP would like to draw attention to the continuing barriers to freedom of expression in Turkey’, said Rachel Bernu, KHRP Managing Director. ‘The Turkish government continues to provide insufficient guarantees for freedom of expression with the continued application of contentious articles of the Turkish Penal Code and new anti-terror laws often resulting in restrictive actions on the part of the police and judiciary. KHRP call for an immediate end to such actions, which are in clear violation of Turkey’s commitments to freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human Rights.’ |