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Last Week’s Freedom to Write Action Alert!
March 24, 2008
There are two Action Alerts this week. The first is PEN’s monthly 301 Action in Turkey for publisher Ragip Zarakolu. The second is regarding new journalist restrictions in Somaliland.
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Action Alert #1:
The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN fears that a trial hearing on 8 April 2008 will end with the sentencing, possibly to a prison term, of publisher Ragip Zarakolu, who is charged with “insult” under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. International PEN protests the charges against Ragip Zarakolu, which are in clear contradiction of international standards safeguarding the right to freedom of expression.
There have been numerous hearings against Ragip Zarakolu since the trial opened in March 2005. He is charged under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (formerly Article 159 of the old Penal Code) for “insulting the State” by publishing Dora Sakayan’s An Armenian Doctor in Turkey: Garabed Hatcherian: My Smyrna Ordeal of 1922. Zarakolu faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
Zarakolu is one of Turkey’s best-known dissident publishers, having suffered harassment, trials and imprisonment ever since he set up his publishing house, Belge, in the 1970s. In 1995, he and his staff escaped injury when his office was bombed by right wing extremists, forcing it to move into a basement site elsewhere in Istanbul. He is winner of numerous national and international freedom of expression awards, and is an honour member of several PEN Centres.
International PEN is deeply concerned that the 8 April 2008 trial hearing against Ragip Zarakolu may result in imprisonment. PEN has long campaigned against the application of this law as a clear deviation from the international standards safeguarding the right to freedom of expression to which Turkey is committed.
Please send appeals:
- Expressing alarm at news that a trial hearing against Ragip Zarakolu under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code could result in conviction;
- Pointing out that should this be the case, it would be in direct violation of international standards protecting the right to freedom of expression as enshrined under Article 19 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 10 of the European Covenant on Human Rights, to which of both Turkey is a signatory;
- Supporting calls for the repeal of Article 301 in recognition of the fact that it has been used to bring numerous people to the courts solely for having legitimately expressed their opinions, in direct violation of international human rights standards.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Office of the Prime Minister
Basbakanlik
06573 Ankara
Turkey
Fax: +90 312 417 0476
Foreign Minister and State Minister for Human Rights
Mr Mehmet Ali Sahin
Office of the Prime Minister
Basbakanlik
06573 Ankara
Turkey
Fax: +90 312 287 8811
Sample Letter of Appeal for Turkey.doc
Action Alert #2:
The Somali-speaking Writers Centre of International PEN calls on the President of the self-declared state of Somaliland, Dahir Rayale Kahin, to lift the new restrictions he has imposed on the independent media’s accessibility to government-generated information.
According to The Somaliland Times (issue 320/8th March, 2008,) sister publication of Haatuf newspaper in Hargeysa, the capital of Somaliland, a new directive by the presidency says “only journalists sanctioned by the minister of Information will be allowed to attend press conferences to be held by the president in his office.” The directive also says that journalists should carry a press card issued by the minister of Information as a pre-condition for being allowed into the Presidency. Until now it has been the practice for journalists in Somaliland to obtain press cards from their employers or from one of the two journalists associations in Somaliland.
According to the newspaper and as confirmed by Somali PEN members in Somaliland, the new instructions are in line with the provisions of the draconian Yemeni press law of 1991 that the Somaliland authorities seems to have copied, word for word, from the internet and submitted it last year to the House of Representatives as a draft press law for governing Somaliland’s independent press.
The Somali-speaking Writers Centre of International PEN condemns this new directive against freedom of expression and expresses its solidarity with journalists and writers in Somaliland. We strongly call on President Rayale to lift these new restrictions on the independent media in Somaliland.
Send your appeals to
1. H.E Dahir Rayale Kahin
Fax: +252 213 8324 or +252 252 3848
E-mail: sl_victory@hotmail.com, sl_victory@yahoo.com
Salutation: Dear President
2. Minister of Interior
Mr. Abdillahi Ismail Shabeel
C/o Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Presidency
Fax: +252 828 3271/ 252 225 3871
E-mail: slforeign@hotmail.com
Salutation: Dear Minister