1."BIA2 Annual Media Report: No Jailing But", according to the BIA2 Report, RTUK ordered 12 local media off the air for a total of 360 days. Two reporters are still in prison. The report tackles 115 cases and conditions of 222 journalists. 13 cases were opened based on article 159 and 8 based on 312.

2. "Turkish Journalists' Campaign For Union", journalists' Union has begun a campaign to ensure ''Press Freedom and to Say No to Censorship'' and also published a "Declaration on Press Freedom". Ipekci explained that within the framework of the campaign, letters would be mailed to the officials.

3. "U.N. blasts Japan for deporting Turkish Kurds", the United Nations accused Japan on Tuesday of violating international law by deporting two Turkish Kurd asylum-seekers it considered to be entitled to refugee status.

4. "EU eyes chance for Cyprus talks in Turkey bid", the European Union (EU)'s opening of membership talks with Turkey later this year could provide a key chance to relaunch talks on reuniting Cyprus, the European Commission said Tuesday.

5. "Four injured, some 176 detained in anti-EU demo in Turkey", four people were injured and 176 others were detained Monday during a demonstration here by a left-wing organization against Turkey's bid to join the European Union, the Anatolia news agency reported.

6. "Welcome Back to Kurdistan", from there it's a four-hour taxi ride to the border, provided you don't get stopped by the Turkish army, whose war with Kurdish rebels was reignited last year when the rebels called off their five-year ceasefire and resumed attacks in Turkish cities.

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1. - Bianet - "BIA2 Annual Media Report: No Jailing But":

According to the BIA2 Report, RTUK ordered 12 local media off the air for a total of 360 days. Two reporters are still in prison. The report tackles 115 cases and conditions of 222 journalists. 13 cases were opened based on article 159 and 8 based on 312.

ISTANBUL / 18 January 2005 / by Erol Onderoglu

Under the new Media Law, journalists will not be jailed, and they will not be forced to reveal their sources or serve as witnesses.

However, the limitations on judicial reporting, brought about by the Media Law, and the new Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which will go into effect on April 1, cast a shadow on the "rights" under the new Media Law. These rights were viewed as the most important development of the year 2004.

The Media Monitoring Desk of the " "Establishing a Countrywide Network in Turkey for Monitoring and Covering Media Freedom and Independent Journalism" (BIA2) project, which has released three quarterly Media Monitoring Reports in 2004, is worried that the new TCK will lead to an increase in the variety of limitations on press freedom, and cause them to be more widespread. The concern is referred to in BIA2's 2004 annual report.

The heavy fines brought about by both laws could lead to the closing down of especially a considerable number of local media organizations, which strive to survive with very limited resources.

Army not in RTUK anymore, but it still exists in courts

One of the important developments in 2004 was the lifting of the "army's influence" on Radio and Television Higher Board (RTUK).

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer approved the law, which annulled the authority of the General Secretariat of the National Security Council (MGK) to propose members for RTUK. With this amendment, the number of board members fell to eight from nine.

Even though the legal authority of the army has been reduced, a military prosecutor could appeal the case of Abdurrahman Dilipak, accused of "damaging senior-junior relations.''

Despite the EU...

In the same year that Turkey got a date from the European Union to begin membership negotiations, journalists continued to be beaten, detained and sued. Those responsible remained unpunished. RTUK continued to suspend television and radio broadcasts.

The 32-page report provides a detailed account of 115 cases and the conditions of 222 journalists, under the topics: "attacks and threats," "detentions and arrests," "trials and attempts," "European Court of Human Rights," "RTUK practices," "regulations and seeking rights," and "censorship and reactions."

RTUK is expecting applications for Kurdish broadcasts

Local and regional media organizations are still unable to air programs in different languages one year after a regulation was passed to allow national private and state media organizations to air programs in "languages and dialects other than Turkish." "Soz TV" (Word TV) and "Gun TV" (Day TV) in Diyarbakir, and "Cagri FM" (Call FM) from Batman still await permission.

Broadcasts in the Bosnian language, Kirmanchi and Zaza dialects of Kurdish, Arabic and Circassian began on June 7 and still continue on Turkish Radio and Television channels. There has been no response to demands for broadcasts in the Laz dialect.

The media organizations, which delayed transferring money in advertisement shares, were ordered off the air while the Allocation of Frequencies, which was specified as the main post of RTUK when it was established in 1994, is still on the wait.

The Constitutional Court ruled that the article granting "quotas to political parties in parliament in the election of RTUK members," and the article on the "50 percent capital share in television and radio stations with an annual rating of over 20 percent" of law no: 4756 on the establishment and operation of radio and televisions, are against the Constitution. The government is expected to make the necessary changes to the articles.

38 cases were launched against media organizations; fines exceeded 1 trillion liras

According to the BIA2 Report, which talks about 115 cases, media organizations were charged with violating the Turkish Penal Code on 38 occasions, the Media Law on 20 occasions, and the Anti-Terrorism Law on seven occasions.

Of a total of 13 cases based on article 159 of the TCK, three resulted in penalties. Of the eight cases based on article 312/2 of TCK, two resulted in penalties and one resulted in an acquittal.

Courts handed a total fine of 1 trillion Turkish liras (1 million new Turkish liras; USD 714,000) to 11 newspapers. Nine of them were local newspapers. Local television and radio stations were handed a total fine of 31 billion liras (31,000 new liras; USD 22,000).

Journalist Mehmet Ali Birand was sued for interviewing the lawyers of the imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan for his program called "32. Gun" (32th Day) on the private CNN Turk channel. He was charged with "aiding the Kongra-Gel organization." Journalist Savas Ay of "Sabah" newspaper was sued for "insulting the judiciary.

Detentions, beatings and threats continued; those responsible remain unpunished

Reporter Sebati Karakurt of "Hurriyet" newspaper was detained on October 15 for interviewing the officials of the Kongra-Gel organization on the Kandil Mountains. The prosecutor released him after one day. There were a total of 53 detentions similar to this one in 2004.

The BIA2 report also shows that there is no improvement in cases opened by journalists who were attacked, detained or threatened by police officers, paramilitary police, or security forces.

There was no outcome in the complaint about nine journalists who were beaten up by civilian police in Diyarbakir, while covering the March 28 elections. Some of those journalists had to be hospitalized.

A total of 20 journalists and two media organizations were attacked in 2004. Reporter Hakki Cat of the "Mersin" newspaper, who was covering the "Free Citizens' Movement" demonstration, reporter Gokce Uygun from the "Cumhuriyet newspaper" who was covering the KESK demonstration in Istanbul, and reporter Sultan Ozer from the "Gunluk Evrensel" (Daily Evrensel) newspaper, who was covering the demonstration by the Socialist Platform of the Oppressed, were attacked by the police.

Two media organizations and seven reporters were threatened by either relatives of deputies, police or figures in the private sector. Dim Media Center building of the "Yeni Alanya" newspaper was attacked by unknown assailants.

In 2004, 12 reporters were imprisoned. Eight reporters, three of whom were imprisoned, were released.

Memik Horuz, the manager of the "Isci Koylu" (Laborer Villager) newspaper, and Yasar Camyar, the former editor-in-chief of the "Alinterimiz" (Our Efforts) newspaper are still in prison.

Eight other reporters are imprisoned pending the outcome of their trial. They are charged with either "membership in an illegal organization," or "aiding and abetting an illegal organization."

Never ending "Kurdish" penalties to local media

Excluding the months April-June, RTUK ordered 12 local media organizations off the air for a total of 360 days for "disseminating separatist propaganda" and "inciting hatred and enmity."

It asked for defenses from six media organizations, four of which were local, for "disseminating separatist propaganda," and 14 media organizations, 13 of which were local, for "inciting enmity."

Kurdish programs and songs were still reasons to suspend broadcasts. Gun TV in Diyarbakir was punished for broadcasting live the Kurdish conversations at the "Discussing Local Administrations" symposium, and airing Kurdish songs. "Can TV" (Life TV) was punished for airing Kurdish songs.

Radio and television stations were ordered off the air for 360 days, 44 programs were suspended and 242 warnings were sent out.

Forty-four programs on 37 TV channels or radio stations were suspended for violating the fourth article of Law No: 3984 on Radio and Television Institutions and Broadcasts. A total of 242 warnings were sent out to local and national media organizations, and defenses were asked for on 69 occasions.

A total of 16 programs were suspended on 15 national television channels, on grounds of "having a negative effect on children." Forty-eight media organizations, five of which were local, were warned, and 27 national television stations were asked to make a defense.

Turkey convicted by the ECHR in three cases

The European Court of Human Rigths convicted Turkey for violating the freedom of expression in cases opened by Cemil Elden, Zubeyir Ozkaya, Medeni Ayhan, Zeynel Baran, Mehmet Hatip Dicle, Ozkan Kalin, Esref Odabasi, Recep Marasli, Veysi Varli, Huseyin Bora, Mehmet Tekin, Sadik Yasar, Hanifi Yildirim, Zulkuf Aydin, Ertugrul Kurkcu and Ragip Zarakolu who were all convicted because of either their books or speeches. The case brought against Turkey by Haluk Gerger was settled.

ECHR handed a fine of 15,000 euros to Turkey in the case about the murder of newspaper distributor Irfan Agdas. The court is evaluating the cases of Dogan Dogan, the manager of the "Korfezin Sesi" (The Voice of Gulf) newspaper published in Edremit who was detained, and journalist Sinan Kara, who was arrested.

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2. - Bianet - "Turkish Journalists' Campaign For Union":

Journalists' Union has begun a campaign to ensure ''Press Freedom and to Say No to Censorship'' and also published a "Declaration on Press Freedom". Ipekci explained that within the framework of the campaign, letters would be mailed to the officials.

ISTANBUL / 18 January 2005

The International Federation of Journalists and its regional group the European Federation of Journalists is backing a campaign by Turkish journalists to combat changes that could see the disappearance of Turkey's independent trade union for newsroom staff.

"Despite all the promises Turkey has made to Europe there are unpleasant changes on the way that could damage press freedom and outlaw the right of journalists to organize," said Aidan White, General Secretary of the IFJ and EFJ.

White met with Turkish journalists' leaders in Istanbul last week at a meeting on democracy and media where a series of legal and academic experts also criticized recent changes in the Turkish Penal Code that put further pressure on journalism and press freedom.

Ercan Ipekçi, General Secretary of the Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS), one of the IFJ's two affiliates in Turkey, said that government plans to encourage the creation of unions which cover whole sectors of the industry could lead to the extinction of an independent, autonomous trade union organization for journalists.

He said that the TGS had launched a campaign to fight for press freedom and for the right to maintain an independent organization for journalists.

The union has begun a campaign to ensure ''Press Freedom and to Say No to Censorship'' and also published a "Declaration on Press Freedom". Ipekci explained that within the framework of the campaign, letters would be mailed to government officials and walk-outs would be organized.

"It is absolutely vital that journalists maintain the right to organize," said White. "If these changes go through it will create a situation where Turkey is the only country in the region where journalists cannot organize freely as trade unionists. It would be a scandalous infringement of their rights."

During the meeting, organized with the support of the Turkish Progressive Journalists Association, the IFJ's other Turkish affiliate, White called on Turkish media professionals to play a bridging role in promoting dialogue between journalists of the Middle East and Europe over current press freedom challenges.

He particularly called for action to combat growing intolerance and racism in Europe, which he said, was "nurtured and encouraged by unscrupulous and racist politicians" that use the media to further intolerance between Muslim groups and other communities in Europe.

This issue will form part of a debate being organized by the IFJ/EFJ in Spain in April this year, which will focus specifically on media, journalism and terrorism.

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3. - Reuters - "U.N. blasts Japan for deporting Turkish Kurds":

GENEVA / 18 January 2005

The United Nations accused Japan on Tuesday of violating international law by deporting two Turkish Kurd asylum-seekers it considered to be entitled to refugee status.

In a strongly worded statement criticising its second-largest donor, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the man and his 20-year-old son had been flown back to Turkey on Tuesday despite its last-minute appeals.

It also voiced concern that the man's wife and three other children faced the same fate.

"UNHCR considers the deportation contrary to Japan's obligations under international law," the agency said.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis declined to identify the man, who arrived in Japan with his family in the 1990s but exhausted all legal remedies to remain in the country.

The UNHCR considered them refugees who met the criteria laid down in international law of having fled persecution or violence, she added. The agency had been seeking to find a third country willing to take them.

"We are concerned about 25 other people in the same situation (in Japan)," Pagonis told Reuters.

The deportation was "unprecedented" and contrasted with Japan's humanitarian assistance towards refugees and disaster victims abroad, the statement said.

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4. - AFP - "EU eyes chance for Cyprus talks in Turkey bid":

BRUSSELS / 18 January 2005

The European Union (EU)'s opening of membership talks with Turkey later this year could provide a key chance to relaunch talks on reuniting Cyprus, the European Commission said Tuesday.

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said that Europe should try to promote European forces in the northern Turkish-run part of the divided island in elections ahead of negotiations with Ankara, due to start in October.

"We have to see the opening of accession negociations with Turkey as a great window of opportunity to at the right time relaunch the talks on the reunification," he told the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee.

He noted that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), recognized only by Ankara, is due to hold parliamentary elections next month and presidential polls in April.

"We have to work so that the pro-European forces in northern Cyprus have a chance to reinforce their positions," he said, adding that this could "pave the way for restarting the talks on the reunification of Cyprus."

The 30-year division of Cyprus remains a major obstacle for Turkey's EU bid, with Ankara refusing to endorse the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government of the island, which became an EU member on May 1.

In December, the EU gave Turkey the green light for accession talks on October 3, 2005, on the condition that it makes a diplomatic gesture to the Greek Cypriots.

Turkey grudgingly promised to sign a protocol by the time accession talks begin to update an association agreement with the EU to cover the 10 new members which joined in May, but stressed that the move would not amount to a formal recognition of the Greek Cypriot government.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey seized the north in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

UN-brokered talks on re-uniting the island shortly before last year's EU enlargement failed to secure agreement, with Kofi Annan's plan rejected notably by a referendum in the Greek-run south.

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5. - AFP - "Four injured, some 176 detained in anti-EU demo in Turkey":

ANKARA / 17 January 2005

Four people were injured and 176 others were detained Monday during a demonstration here by a left-wing organization against Turkey's bid to join the European Union, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Riot police intervened against the demonstrators using tear gas after they tried to march to the city center after reading a press statement at a park in the Kurtulus district, the report said.

Footage broadcast on NTV showed dozens of police and protestors pushing against each other while a number of demonstrators lay on the ground, holding each other, to resist detention.

Four protestors and a police officer were injured in the scuffle, Anatolia said.

The protest was organized by a left-wing organization called the Youth Federation and was attended by members who came to Ankara from other cities early Monday, the NTV news channel said.

In December, the European Union invited Turkey to begin membership talks next October, but attached a series of tough conditions.

Although the majority of the Turkish public opinion is in favour of their country joining the EU, right and left-wing factions claim the move is against national interests.

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6. - IPS - "Welcome Back to Kurdistan":

ARBIL / 19 January 2005 / by Aaron Glantz

My journey back to Iraq began, as most trips to the north of the country do, at the airport in Diyarbakkir, the largest Kurdish majority city in Turkey.

From there it's a four-hour taxi ride to the border, provided you don't get stopped by the Turkish army, whose war with Kurdish rebels was reignited last year when the rebels called off their five-year ceasefire and resumed attacks in Turkish cities..

On the plane from Istanbul, I had met a 45-year-old Kurd named Khass. A civil engineer living in London, he had left his home in Sulaiymania in northern Iraq to study in Britain in 1978, the year Saddam Hussein came to power.

”I didn't return home for more than twenty years,” he told me, ”because as soon as I finished school Saddam Hussein invaded Iran. If I had returned home I would have had to fight in a war I didn't believe in..”

He married a British woman and brought up two children. Now he was returning to Kurdistan to work for an American company called U.I. building a hospital in the city of his birth.

We hailed a taxi together and traveled uneventfully towards Turkey's Habur border crossing, arriving at 2pm. Traffic was light. A month ago, the Turkish lorry drivers who bring non-perishable goods and refined petrol into Iraqi Kurdistan went on strike. As tensions in Iraq have increased, the truckers have become easy targets for the armed resistance. More than 80 have been killed; some of them were beheaded.

But on the Iraqi side of the border there was little indication that I was entering a war-zone, and very little sign that I was entering Iraq. A signpost on the side of the road read 'Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan'. The green, white, and red pan-national flag of the Kurds flew overhead, a yellow sun at its centre.

In the customs office, pictures of Kurdish leaders Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani were displayed prominently. As we rested, the Kurdish border guards served us tea and even offered us a ride to the northern Iraqi city Zakho.

There some of the problems of Kurdistan began to show themselves. Because of violence in the northern city Mosul, it was no longer advisable for me to take a direct route from Zakho to the Kurdistan regional capital, Arbil. A circuitous route through the country's northern mountains was required, and because of the Turkish truckers strike, the black market price of petrol in Iraq has skyrocketed. The cost of a taxi had risen considerably as a result.

Luckily, an elderly Turkomen arrived in Zakho and I was able, again, to share a taxi. His name was Adil and he had fled Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War when former U.S. president George Bush Sr. had urged the Iraqi people to rise against Saddam Hussein -- and then withdrawn U.S. support when Saddam Hussein began massacring his opponents.

After three years in Ankara, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees had settled him in Vancouver in Canada where he moved with his family. Improbably, he said he was returning to his native Kirkuk on advice from his Canadian doctor, who had advised him to move to a warmer climate to ease the pain of his aching joints.

”Surely there must have been warmer places that aren't so dangerous?” I asked incredulously, mentioning that many observers fear bloodshed in the multi-ethnic, oil-rich city if Kurds sweep to power in elections slated for the end of this month.

”Kirkuk is fine,” he told me. ”I have my brother there and two of my cousins and they are still working and their children are still going to school. Maybe the Kurds will make some problems there during the elections, but anyway no one will bother me. No one would harm an 80-year-old man.”

At 9pm I finally arrived in Arbil. It was rainy, cold and dark. Electricity is available in Arbil for only four hours a day. I moved into a cheap hotel, where I'll be living with another independent journalist.

The next morning, I woke up and made my first trip to the Asayeesh, Kurdish for the state security police. After some back and forth a heavy man with a thick moustache gave me a purple sheet of paper granting me permission to work for two weeks in sections of northern Iraq controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party. If I travel to Suleymania or Hallabja where the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is in control, I will need to register with their state security police.

”Welcome to Kurdistan,” the police officer said, handing me the paper.