H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
Istanbul, Turkey

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, is deeply concerned about the introduction of a new Turkish Penal Code (TCK) and the continued criminal prosecution of a number of journalists.

The new TCK was adopted last year and will come into force on 1 April. According to reports, the new TCK contains provisions to punish journalists with prison sentences for their work, as well as vague wording that could make it easier for the authorities to suppress the media. The new TCK is the first change to the Penal Code in 78 years and it revamps Turkey's criminal laws.

According to information before IPI, the new penal code has 30 articles that threaten press freedom. In the face of these changes, the Turkish Journalists Association and the Turkish Press Council have heavily criticised the new TCK.

On 14 March, the Turkish Journalists Association sent a letter criticising the new TCK to the Minister of Justice, Cemil Cicek. The minister has promised to consider the complaints and make the necessary changes.

The Journalists Association maintains that certain articles must be changed because they prevent journalists from writing about on-going police investigations. Furthermore, article 125 on "insult" states that any criticism of a political figure might be interpreted as a personal insult and could lead to the journalist being imprisoned. The minimum sentence for committing a crime "against a state official because of his or her post" is one year in prison.

In addition, the new TCK increases prison sentences where the media are involved and is in stark contrast to the Press Law. As an example, where journalists write about an on-going police investigation, the current Press Law (article 19) provides for large fines, while the new TCK (article 288) carries prison sentences from six months to three years.

In this connection, two journalists for the Milliyet daily, Tolga Sardan and Gokser Tahincioglu, face charges for writing articles about alleged links between Turkish mafia boss Alaattin Cakici, the National Information Agency (MYT) and the Court of Appeals.

Hürriyet reporters Toygun Atilla and Cetin Aydin, as well as editor Necdet Tatlican, are also on trial for allegedly violating the secrecy of an on-going police investigation in a separate case involving alleged links between state institutions and the mafia.

The journalists were prosecuted because they published tapes of telephone conversations that reveal this relationship. They are accused of breaching article 4422 of the Penal Code that is related to the fight against organised crime. While they have cited facts in their articles that shed light on the investigation, they are liable for breaking the law because the police investigation had not been concluded. Now the journalists face imprisonment. The case is the first time that journalists have been prosecuted under the Penal Code and not sued according to the Press Law.

The new TCK also contains clauses for acting against the "basic national interest" in return for material benefits from foreigners. Under article 220, individuals found guilty of setting up an organisation that aims to commit crimes, or disseminating propaganda for such an organisation, are given prison sentences, which are increased by half, if the propaganda is disseminated by media outlets.

Many other articles also increase the prison sentence by half if the offence was committed through the media. Thus, article 305 can be used to charge people who write about controversial issues, such as Turkish troops in Cyprus or the Armenian genocide; article 318 can be used to charge individuals, who write critical pieces about the military.

IPI calls on Your Excellency to take into account the demands of the Turkish journalists and to amend the Penal Code to decriminalise defamation. IPI believes criminal insult laws to be an anachronism that should be removed from every legal system. They should not exist in a country seeking to join the European Union and no journalist should have the stigma of a criminal record for merely expressing his or her opinions.

By keeping defamation as a criminal offence, journalists are forced to weigh up the public interest of publishing against the fear of criminal prosecution. This will only encourage greater self-censorship in Turkey and this is to the detriment of not only the journalism profession, but also the country's readership which will be deprived of valuable information.

IPI would also like to remind Your Excellency that Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to "seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director