Journalists Threatened Under Anti-Terror Law

Istanbul’s Bagcilar district 2nd Court of First Instance prosecutor Omer Karacal has demanded prison terms under article 6/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMY) against a journalist and two editors of the mass circulation Turkish daily Hurriyet newspaper for an interview published in the daily on October 10, 2005.

Journalist Sebati Karakurt, editors Necdet Tatlıcan and Hasan Kılıc have been charged with violating article 6/2 through the publication of an interview titled “Womens mentality in Kandil exceeds pro-Kurdish demands” where Murat Karayilan, a senior leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was interviewed.

In an article accompanying the interview, also published in the Sunday special edition of the newspaper the same day, Karakurt had described the changes of the living conditions of militants attached to the PKK who were living on Kandil mountain.

Appearing at court on Friday, May 5, Karakurt testified in the presence of his defence attorney Yucel Dosemeci, saying that the Kandil mountain report was not the first of his reports and recalling that he had interviewed organisation leaders in Algeria in 1994, was the first journalist to enter Falluja and Baghdad during the war and that a news report he had prepared on the presence of PKK militants in Romania had even been submitted as a document to the Romanian Prime Minister by former Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller.

Karakurt said that three months ago he met a girl who had escaped the ranks of the PKK and that she told him she had used his Kandil news report to explain to those around her why she had escaped.

Karakurt argued that the report and interview were part of his journalistic duty and refuted allegations that there was any form of organizational propaganda in either. He noted that he had won an award in the field of news-interview from the Journalists Association of Turkey (TGC) for the news item subject to charges.

Karacal says TMY violated

Adding Karakurt’s two page petition to the case file, the court decided against hearing defendants Kilic and Tatlican and asked Prosecutor Omer Karacal to read his indictment.

The prosecutor said the interview and accompanying photographs appeared to serve propaganda for the organization and asked for all three defendants to be punished under article 6/2 of the TMY.

On request of the defense attorney, the court decided to give time for a detailed defense to be prepared and the hearing was adjourned to September 21, at 9:10.

On October 25, 2005, the Istanbul Number 10 Criminal Court had issued a lack of jurisdiction decision in the case against Karakurt where a prison term of 5 years in addition to fines was demanded for the journalist. Charges leveled against Karakurt were "printing the statements of a terror organization" and "carrying out the propaganda of a terror organization".

A search of Karakurt's house by the police after publication of the news item had led to reaction from the country’s press freedom circles and organisations that condemned it as “an attack against a news source”. (EO/KO/II/YE)