Country Watch U.S. federal law or European Union law.
The current scenario could probably leave space for a compromise with Europe over the next year or for a multilateral definition of global airline-emis- sions system in front of the International Civil Avia- tion Organization.
*Submitted by Guiliana Quattrocchi
Turkish Journalists on Trial: Treason or Freedom of Expression?
On November 22, 2011, thirteen journalists were put on trial in Istanbul, Turkey for their alleged in- volvement in a plot to overthrow the Turkish gov- ernment and other criminal activity. These journal- ists were part of over 300 people arrested since 2009 as part of the government’s investigation into Ergenekon, a secret anti-Islamic ultra-nation- alist military-backed organization.
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The government has labelled Ergenekon a terrorist organization and views it as an amalgam of differ- ent types of groups, such as pro-Kurdish forces. Ergenekon is suspected of planning to weaken the government through bombings, political assas- sinations, and other actions targeting the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Muslim group who has been in control of Turkey since 2002. AKP is characterized as economically liberal and socially conservative, but the group Ergenekon, and oth- ers, accuse AKP of trying to make Turkey’s secular society more Islamic.
The journalists have been in jail for the past nine months, with some journalists being held in a top security prison. Others arrested for their alleged involvement with Ergenekon include writers, re- tired and current military officers, police officers, other academics, lawyers, and even the head of the Turkish Workers’ Party.
By some reports, over 100 people who work in the news media industry are in jail. If charged with conspiracy, the journalists could be imprisoned
up to 15 years. Several of the defendants claim that AKP is simply seeking to silence its critics as it promotes Islamic principles in Turkey’s modern secular society.
Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sik, both arrested in March, are two of more prominent journalists on trial. Nedim Sener became famous after writing about the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and police negligence surrounding his murder. The government claimed that Ergenekon killed the journalist Dink, and Sener began doing research on the organization. He won a press free- dom award for his book on this subject which in- creased his popularity even more. Ahmet Sik was working on a book about how Turkey’s Security Forces have been infiltrated by the Gullen move- ment, an Islamic movement connected to a cleric living in Pennsylvania.
When Sener entered the courtroom on the first day of his trial, he told a packed room, “Welcome to the theatre,” and continued to claim that the government planted the evidence against him. He believes that the charges against him and the other journalists are about freedom of expres- sion, as opposed to the journalists’ actual involve- ment in a political plot. According to Sener, the evidence against him includes his book, his 212 news scripts, and 247 phone tap scripts. The gov- ernment claimed that it found a file on his com- puter linked to Ergenekon, but an independent team of skilled investigators determined that the file which was installed by a virus, came from Oda TV, an anti-government website. Soner Yalçin, who is an executive editor of Oda TV, is also on trial. His lawyer claims that Ergenekon-related files on Oda TV’s computers were placed there by government hackers.
The journalists’ first day of trial only lasted for four hours before being postponed until December 26, 2011. The defense filed a motion seeking to remove Judge Resul Çakir from the case because he was involved in the Dink murder trial and had recently
ILSA Quarterly » volume 20 » issue 3 » February 2012
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