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Finally a backbone from EU free speech freedoms will not be trimmed to save a deal with Turkey “satire”

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0,,19183018_303,00(DW) EU free speech freedoms will not be trimmed to save a deal with Turkey on migrant flows, says European Commission President Juncker. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants a German satirist prosecuted.

Jean-Claude Juncker told the European Parliament Wednesday that dialogue was the only way to resolve issues with Turkey, including Ankara’s demand that satirist Jan Böhmermann be prosecuted in Germany for insulting Erdogan.

“One thing is clear to me – no matter how important the work for refugees may be, our values on press freedoms and fundamental values do not change,” Juncker said in Strasbourg, referring to fallout from two satirical inserts about Erdogan on German public television channels NDR and ZDFneo.

“I cannot understand at all that a German ambassador is summoned for an admittedly difficult satirical song,” said Juncker, referring to the first German broadcast that lampooned Erdogan.

Böhmermann delivered his crude poem about Erdogan on ZDFneo on March 31, saying his intention was to test legal limits on free speech in the wake of the satirical song on NDR.

Only dialogue would help resolve such issues with Turkey, Juncker told parliament.

Merkel not going to Turkey

According to German law, the government can decide whether or not to prosecute for insulting foreign leaders.

The German Social Democrats called for the law to be scrapped, describing it as “antiquated” and limiting to freedom of speech. At the same time, the chancellor’s spokesman said that decision on Erdogan’s case “will be made” regardless of whether the law is changed.

Spokesman Steffen Seibert also denied Ankara’s claims that Chancellor Merkel was planning a trip to Turkey to open a new refugee camp on the Syrian border.

“I have been asked a half dozen times in the last days and weeks about this trip on April 16 and never confirmed this trip, this appointment, and that is still the case,” Seibert told reporters.

On March 18, the EU and Turkey concluded a deal to ease Europe’s largest arrivals of migrants since World War II.

Complex deal

Since April 4, migrants in Greece are being returned to Turkey from where 72,000 vetted asylum seekers are to be forwarded to EU nations.

For its cooperation, Turkey was promised acceleration of its long-stalled bid for EU membership, the doubling of refugee aid, and visa-free travel by June for Turkish nationals to Europe’s Schengen passport-free zone.

In parliament Wednesday, liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt urged EU Council of Ministers President Donald Tusk to check reports by Amnesty International and Dutch television that refugees’ rights were not being respected in Greece and Turkey.

The group leader for parliament’s left parties, Gabi Zimmer, accused Tusk and Juncker of not doing enough to ensure that proper legal handling of refugees.

From Brussels Wednesday, Reuters news agency said Juncker and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu would meet in Strasbourg next week to discuss the implementation of the migration deal.

It quoted an EU official as saying Juncker and Davutoglu were both due to speak at the plenary session of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly on April 19.

ipj/dj/kms (Reuters, AFP, dpa)

EU slams Turkey over rule of law, free speech

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f5641e771203c2_5641e771203fd.thumbThe European Union accused Turkey on November 10 of backsliding on the rule of law, rights and the media, calling on the new government to take urgent action in a sensitive report that Brussels held back until after elections, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The scathing report on Ankara’s EU candidacy, originally due for release before the vote that returned the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power, praised Turkey for housing Syrian refugees and for cooperating on the migration crisis.
But it was severely critical of the domestic situation in Turkey, saying that there had been “serious backsliding” on freedom of expression and that the judiciary had been undermined.
“The report emphasizes an overall negative trend in the respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights,” said a summary of the report’s key findings by the European Commission, the EU’s powerful executive arm.
Turkey’s commitment to joining the 28-nation bloc was “offset” by domestic actions that “ran against European standards,” it added.
“The new government formed after the repeat election on Nov. 1 will need to address these urgent priorities,” the summary said.

The report highlighted criminal cases against journalists and writers, intimidation of media outlets and changes to Internet law.
“After several years of progress on freedom of expression, serious backsliding was seen over the past two years,” it said.
It added that the “independence of the judiciary and the principle of separation of powers have been undermined since 2014 and judges and prosecutors have been under strong political pressure.”

Turkey had meanwhile seen a “severe deterioration of its security situation.”
The harsh report had been expected to be released in October but was held back until after the elections, in which the AKP stormed back to a majority.
Its release comes just over a month after the EU announced a refugee cooperation deal with Turkey, the main launching point for migrants coming to Europe, including a possible three billion euros ($3.3 billion) in aid.
The deal included pushing forward Turkey’s long-stalled accession process and speeding up visa liberalization for Turks travelling to the EU.
Turkey applied for EU membership in 1987 and accession talks began in 2005, but Ankara has since completed just one of the 33 “chapters” needed to join the bloc.

Turkish Crime Against Humanity: Human rights lawyer gets 10-month prison sentence

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202942_newsdetailEren Keskin, a prominent Turkish lawyer, has been handed a 10-month prison sentence on charges of “insulting the Turkish nation and the Republic of Turkey” for criticizing the killing of a 12-year-old by a police officer while speaking at conference back in 2005.

A former president of the Human Rights Association’s (İHD) İstanbul office, Keskin was a guest speaker at a conference in the Çerkezköy district of Tekirdağ province. While there, she commented on the killing of 12-year-old Uğur Kaymaz and his father by police, saying: “The [Turkish] state has a wild mindset [that allows it] to slay a 12-year-old. Turkey has to answer [for this]. Turkey has a dirty history.” Ten years after her comment, a court sentenced her to 10 months in jail, basing its ruling on the highly controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).

The judge chose not to put Keskin on probation, saying she “has a bad record and might commit another similar crime in the future.”

Speaking to the media on her conviction, Keskin said she has no criminal record and that the judge, seeing her as an enemy, acted with vengeance.
“The expressions ‘bad record’ and ‘criminal record’ are used for people who have committed serious crimes. I am a human rights activist and a lawyer. So far, I have only been tried for my views. The government claims that there is nobody in jail for their opinions, but apparently nothing has changed in Turkey,” Keskin said.

Many Turkish journalists and authors, including Elif Şafak and Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, have faced prosecution based on the same article, mostly concerning comments supporting claims of an Armenian genocide in 1915. Following a large number of cases, an amendment was introduced to Article 301 in 2008, narrowing the scope of the crime. If the Supreme Court of Appeals upholds Keskin’s conviction, she will be the first person in a long while to be imprisoned based on the article.

#ErdoganCaricature Cartoonist Musa Kart acquitted in case filed by Erdoğan, (free speech Win erdoğan Loss)

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195370_newsdetailCumhuriyet daily Cartoonist Musa Kart has been cleared of charges that he had insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — who was prime minister when Kart drew a picture of him during an infamous corruption investigation last year. report todayzaman

In Thursday’s hearing of the trial against Kart, which was handled by the İstanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance, the artist said in his defense: “Yes, I drew it [the cartoon] but I did not mean to insult. I just wanted to show the facts. Indeed, I think that we are inside a cartoon right now. Because I am in the suspect’s seat while charges were dropped against all the suspects [involved in two major graft scandals]. I need to say that this is funny.”

The cartoonist added that it was impossible for writers and cartoonists to remain silent in the face of the graft scandals, which went public on Dec. 17 and Dec. 25.

The court acquitted Kart.

President Erdoğan had filed a criminal complaint against Kart in February, when he was still prime minister, claiming that the artist had committed the crime of “insulting through publication and slander” via a cartoon. Kart had drawn a hologram of Erdoğan serving as a watchman in a robbery. Following Erdoğan’s complaint, the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office dropped the charges against Kart. However, the decision was appealed by a lawyer representing Erdoğan. A prison sentence of 10 months was sought for Kart.