18 April 2006

1. "Kurd party slams Turk govt, army, EU over clashes", Turkey's main Kurdish political party accused the government of doing nothing to tackle the problems of the mainly Kurdish southeast and also expressed disappointment with the attitude of the EU.

2. "Violence Intensifies in Turkey’s Kurdish Region", violence has been steadily rising in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast region ever since rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, ended a five-year truce in June 2004. Two weeks of violent protests left at least 10 Kurdish demonstrators dead in the provinces of Diyarbakir and Batman. At least two Turkish soldiers and 12 rebels were killed in fighting Tuesday in Sirnak Province.

3. "An ugly nationalist mood is brewing in Ankara, stalling once hailed reforms", whatever happened to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the outspoken prime minister whose bold reforms brought Turkey to the very threshold of Europe? He was a rebel who loosened the Turkish military's stranglehold on political power. He brought cultural rights to the country's Kurdish minority and overhauled a quasi-totalitarian legal system. But these days? He sounds more and more like the reactionary old guard he came to power vowing to overturn.

4. "Kurds march on EU over Turkish treatment", thousands of Kurds marched through Brussels on Saturday, calling on the European Union to put pressure on Turkey to improve its treatment of Kurds. Kurds came from around Europe, carrying flags and holding up pictures they said showed victims of street clashes with Turkish police that occurred two weeks ago in southeast Turkey.

5. "Journalist wounded in southeast Turkey riots dies", a journalist wounded during riots in the Kurdish majority region of southeast Turkey last month has died, bringing the death toll from the violence to 16 victims, local security forces said on Saturday.

6. "Soldier killed in clash with Kurdish rebels", a Turkish soldier died in hospital here Friday from injuries sustained in fighting with Kurdish rebels, officials said.

7. "Publishers Troubled with Restrictive Laws", Prof. Oran, "Government has retreated in face of Turkish nationalism"; Finkel, "it's no use if journalists have no courage"; Lawyer Ilkiz, "Public Morality cannot be entrusted to the Obscenity Commission"; Lawyer Inanici: "301 designed to reinforce..."

8. "ECHR Conference in Ankara", academics and jurists will meet April 28 to debate right to fair trial and freedom of expression. The cartoon crisis, racial remarks, freedom of expression for civil servants, media's right to access to information are aong the issues of debate.

1. - Reuters - "Kurd party slams Turk govt, army, EU over clashes":

ANKARA / 14 April 2006

Turkey's main Kurdish political party accused the government of doing nothing to tackle the problems of the mainly Kurdish southeast and also expressed disappointment with the attitude of the EU.

Turkey's impoverished southeast has recently been rocked by street clashes between Kurdish protesters and security forces. Violence has also increased between rebels of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the army.

"The army and the government does not want the Kurdish problem to be solved ... If soldiers and the government wanted a solution, weapons would immediately fall silent," said Hasip Kaplan, deputy head of the Democratic Society Party (DTP).

"The solution of the problem lies in Ankara," he told a news conference devoted to the recent civil disturbances.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has refused to meet DTP representatives, saying they must first renounce terrorism.

During the recent clashes, DTP leaders said they understood and sympathised with the protesters. The government accused the PKK of deliberately provoking the violence.

Kaplan did not spell out what the DTP wanted Ankara to do, but in the past the party has called for more cultural and linguistic rights for the Kurds, more state help to revive the region's economy and a lowering of the threshold for parliament.

The DTP has no representatives in the Turkish parliament because it has failed to win enough votes to cross the 10 percent threshold. Its support is mainly concentrated in the southeast and is weak elsewhere across Turkey.

Turkey's Kurds have strongly backed Turkey's bid to join the European Union, which has already resulted in the lifting of some restrictions on their language and culture, but Kaplan hinted that the EU could do much more for his people.

"The EU ... made weak statements without inspecting the scene of the (recent) incidents ... The EU scored badly in this test. But unrest in Turkey, as a candidate country, should interest them," he said.

Erdogan, on a visit to the southeast on Friday, reiterated his view that all ethnic groups in Turkey should work closely together and abandon political separatism.

"We all have different ethnic identities, but it is the bond of common citizenship of the Turkish Republic that unites us," he said.

"Our Kurdish citizens should not feel that the state regards them differently."

2. - VOA - "Violence Intensifies in Turkey’s Kurdish Region":

DIYARBAKIR / 14 April 2006 / by Amberin Zaman

Violence has been steadily rising in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast region ever since rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, ended a five-year truce in June 2004. Two weeks of violent protests left at least 10 Kurdish demonstrators dead in the provinces of Diyarbakir and Batman. At least two Turkish soldiers and 12 rebels were killed in fighting Tuesday in Sirnak Province.

In a dark cramped apartment in Diyarbakir's Baglar district, Mahmut Duran can barely hold back his tears as he greets a steady stream of visitors . They are bringing condolences for the death of his nine-year-old son Abdullah. Duran says his son was shot and killed by Turkish security forces during last month's demonstrations.

Duran says he will not rest until justice is served.

Abdullah is one of four children killed in the worst bout of violence in Turkey's Kurdish region in recent years. The trouble started on March 28 during the burial ceremony of four rebels belonging to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party known as PKK.

The funeral degenerated into a rampage, as enraged Kurdish youths firebombed banks, stoned police stations and shattered hundreds of shop windows. Two Kurds died in ensuing clashes with police.

Their funerals sparked a new round of protests that engulfed the neighboring provinces of Batman, Mardin and Hakkari further east. Retaliatory attacks by the PKK that claimed the lives of two Turkish women in Istanbul have stoked nationalist anger across Turkey.

There is mounting pressure on Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to take tougher action against the rebels. But analysts warn that addressing the Kurdish problem through military measures alone may jeopardize Turkey's hopes of joining the European Union. Human rights activists in Diyarbakir say that arbitrary arrests and torture of detainees has sharply increased in recent weeks.

Since coming to power three years ago Mr. Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party pushed through reforms that persuaded the 25-member European alliance to open membership talks with Turkey last October. They include laws that allow the country's estimated 14 million Kurds to teach their long banned language in private schools.

Last month private television stations were granted official permission to broadcast in Kurdish.

Ahmet Turk is the co-chairman of Turkey's largest pro-Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party, or DTP. He says the reforms are a step in the right direction but they fall short of addressing the Kurds' demands for lasting peace in the region.

Turk says that one of the foremost conditions for securing peace in the region would be for the government to declare an amnesty for some 5,000 PKK rebels, whose leaders are based in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq.

He says the government's refusal to grant amnesty to PKK members was one of the main reasons why the rebels abandoned their unilateral cease-fire last June and resumed their violent campaign.

Abdurrahman Kurt is the provincial chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party in Diyarbakir. He says government reforms and rising economic prosperity have combined to erode public support for the PKK. He says the recent violence is a clear sign of PKK's waning influence.

Kurt says the government now provides free health care for poor families and around $20 in educational support for each of their children every month. He admits more needs to be done to win the hearts and minds of Turkey's restive Kurds and that military action against the rebels needs to be tempered with further democratic reforms.

Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk agrees that the PKK's decision to resume its armed campaign is unpopular with many Kurds. He says Kurdish issues should be addressed in peaceful negotiations.

3. - Newsweek International - "An ugly nationalist mood is brewing in Ankara, stalling once hailed reforms":

ISTANBUL / 24 April 2006 / with Sami Kohen

Whatever happened to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the outspoken prime minister whose bold reforms brought Turkey to the very threshold of Europe? He was a rebel who loosened the Turkish military's stranglehold on political power. He brought cultural rights to the country's Kurdish minority and overhauled a quasi-totalitarian legal system. But these days? He sounds more and more like the reactionary old guard he came to power vowing to overturn.

Consider some contrasts. Last August Erdogan electrified crowds in the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakir by telling them they were citizens with equal rights. But earlier this month, after a week of rioting, he warned Kurdish protesters, "Don't you dare test the power of the state." Last year Erdogan defied nationalists at home by agreeing to open Turkish ports and airports to Greek Cypriot vessels and aircraft, the price the European Union demanded for starting EU accession talks. Now he's backpedaling. Erdogan came to power preaching tolerance and human rights. Now he's repeatedly sued cartoonists who lampoon him.

At home and abroad, Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, have taken a sharp lurch toward old-fashioned Turkish nationalism—with potentially dramatic implications for Ankara's EU bid as well as Turkey's place in the world. Why? Erdogan's a politician. Elections are looming, perhaps as soon as this November. If his mildly Islamic party is to do well, it must stay in tune with the voters—and they seem to be shifting. Long friendly toward the United States and hungry to join Europe, young Turks in particular now seem to be turning toward parties critical of U.S. policy in the region and EU interference at home. Last month researchers surveying Turkey's 4.5 million 17- to 19-year-olds found that fully 20 percent said they'd vote for the far-right Nationalist Action Party. At a recent congress, NEWSWEEK has learned, Erdogan instructed party elders to play up nationalism to get those voters back. "The party's religious credentials will never be questioned, but their nationalist ones can be," says an AKP source not authorized to speak on the record.

The recent unrest in the largely Kurdish southeast—which left at least 15 protesters dead, including four children—has been a turning point. Revolutionary reforms pushed through by Erdogan (backed by strong EU pressure) have given Turkey's Kurds more rights than they've had in generations, including the opportunity to broadcast and teach in their own language. Yet for his pains, Erdogan has a revolt on his hands that bears uncomfortable similarities to the Palestinian intifada: crowds of children, their faces covered with scarves, throwing stones at soldiers, as well as a female suicide bomber who blew herself up in the northern town of Ordu. Erdogan's reaction was quick and unequivocal. Security forces wouldn't hesitate to act against women and children, he warned, if they allowed themselves to be used as "pawns of terrorism."

A crackdown on the Kurds would be the death knell for Turkey's EU aspirations. But growing numbers of Turks don't seem to care. Indeed, many blame the EU for encouraging dangerous Kurdish national aspirations. According to a recent poll conducted by Istanbul's Bilgi University, the proportion of Turks in favor of joining the EU has fallen from 75 percent in 2004 to 63 percent today. Other surveys put the figure closer to 50 percent. Turks also blame the United States for failing to close down military camps of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq. "You tell the world that you have a war on terror and yet you haven't touched the PKK, despite all the troops you have in the country?" says Kemal Koprulu, the U.S.-educated founder of the ARI think tank in Istanbul.

Cyprus is another flash point. In a nod to Europe, the Turks last year agreed to open Turkish ports to Cyprus on the understanding that the EU would open up ports in Northern Cyprus as well. No go, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn now says. Turkey must open its ports before this coming October's EU progress report or the whole process will turn into a "train wreck." Trouble is, the Turks are so determined not to back down on Cyprus that Ankara's already talking about suspending further EU negotiations.

Unfortunately for Turkey, there's no shortage of Europeans who would like to see just that. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is far less friendly toward Turkish membership than her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, was. Greece, once an ardent champion, is turning cooler too. Athens' new foreign minister, Dora Bakoyannis, warned earlier this month that "Turkey's EU process is not a certain path."

Faced with a chill in Brussels, Erdogan has focused his energies on developing Turkey's ties to the Islamic world. Last month he made a keynote speech at the Arab League conference in Khartoum, and his foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, hosted Hamas's Khaled Mashal and Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi for talks. There have been numerous high-level visits by Syrian and Iranian officials. To Washington's chagrin, Ankara has even flirted with inviting the hard-line Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr as part of what Erdogan's chief foreign-affairs adviser, Ahmed Davutoglu, calls Turkey's "zero problems with our neighbors'' policy.

Erdogan isn't about to abandon his drive to modernize Turkey, by any means, and preparing the country for EU membership is part and parcel of that effort. Indeed, joining Europe remains the Justice Party's best defense against military hawks opposed to its efforts to dismantle the more repressive apparatus of the state. Yet Erdogan is playing a dangerous game. Perhaps he can balance the dictates of liberal economics, progressive politics and old-time nationalism. But there are plenty of enemies, both at home and in Europe, who would like to see him fail.

4. - Reuters - "Kurds march on EU over Turkish treatment":

BRUSSELS / 15 April 2006

Thousands of Kurds marched through Brussels on Saturday, calling on the European Union to put pressure on Turkey to improve its treatment of Kurds.

Kurds came from around Europe, carrying flags and holding up pictures they said showed victims of street clashes with Turkish police that occurred two weeks ago in southeast Turkey.

Ankara began negotiations with the EU to join the rich 25-member bloc last year. But its conflict with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought for 20 years to carve out a Kurdish homeland in the region, has been one of several sticking points in the talks. "We want the European Union to talk to Turkey, to say that there is a problem, there is no democratisation in the country, and to push for dialogue between Turkey and the Kurds," a march organiser, Sidan Dogan, said.

Local media said there were about 10,000 protesters and that the march appeared to be peaceful. The police were not immediately available to say whether there were any incidents.

In late March, 16 people died in street battles between Kurds and Turkish police, which were sparked by the funerals of 14 PKK rebels killed by troops.

The EU then voiced concern over the violence, and called for Turkey to grant more economic and cultural rights to the Kurds.

5. - AFP - "Journalist wounded in southeast Turkey riots dies":

DIYARBAKIR / 15 April 2006

A journalist wounded during riots in the Kurdish majority region of southeast Turkey last month has died, bringing the death toll from the violence to 16 victims, local security forces said on Saturday.

Ilyas Aktas, 22, who worked for a leftist newspaper, was reporting on the clashes between young supporters of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and security forces in late March.

He was hit in the head by a tear gas grenade fired by police in the city of Diyarbakir on March 30, officials said. He died Friday and was buried on Saturday.

Thirteen people were killed in those riots in Diyarbakir and neighboring towns and three others died in a bomb attack on a city bus in Istanbul.

The fighting between the Turkish army and the PKK has claimed some 37,000 lives since the outbreak of the conflict in 1984.

6. - AFP - "Soldier killed in clash with Kurdish rebels":

DIYARBAKIR / 14 April 2006

A Turkish soldier died in hospital here Friday from injuries sustained in fighting with Kurdish rebels, officials said.

The clash occurred Thursday during a military operation against the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on the boundary between Mardin and Sirnak provinces near the Syrian frontier, Mardin Governor Mehmet Kiliclar said in a statement carried by the Anatolia news agency.

The soldier was taken to hospital in Diyarbakir, the largest city of the mainly Kurdish southeast, but could not be saved, the agency said.

The statement said: "Operations in the region are continuing against the separatist terrorist organization" -- the official term for the PKK.

Violence has increased in southeast Turkey since late March, when Kurdish riots that shook urban areas for a week were followed by clashes in the countryside between the army and the PKK.

The Kurdish conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast.

7. - Bianet - "Publishers Troubled with Restrictive Laws":

Prof. Oran, "Government has retreated in face of Turkish nationalism"; Finkel, "it's no use if journalists have no courage"; Lawyer Ilkiz, "Public Morality cannot be entrusted to the Obscenity Commission"; Lawyer Inanici: "301 designed to reinforce..."

ISTANBUL / 18 April 2006 / by Erol Onderoglu

Leading jurists, publishers and journalists attending the "2nd Turkish Publishing Convention" held in Istanbul have expressed concern over judicial restrictions on the publishing sector in the country, criticising current legislation for restricting the freedom of expression and enforcing an auto-censorship on publishers and authors.

The event was jointly organized by the Turkish Publishers Union (TYB) and Istanbul Bilgi University.

Culture and Tourism Minister Atilla Koc, addressing the convention argued that the publishing industry had recorded serious improvements since the state withdrew from the field and promised more incentives to the sector with the state postal authority becoming part of the distribution network.

Communications jurist Fikret Ilkiz criticized the way the issue of public morality was handled in the Turkish legal system, while jurist Haluk Inanici stressed that the freedom of opinion was an insurance for democracy and criticized controversial article 301. Participating speakers appeared to all agree that the publishing sector was in deep waters due to legislation.

Koc: PTT will become part of publishing sector

The convention that started on April 13 was launched with a session on "the Turkish Penal Code and Freedom of Publishing" where Prof.Dr. Baskin Oran, British journalist Andrew Finkel based in Turkey, communications law expert jurist Fikret Ilkiz, publisher Ragip Zarakolu and jurist Haluk Inanici made speeches.

Culture and Tourism Minister Atilla Koc who had attended the first convention two years ago told participants that with the state withdrawing from the publishing sector under their administration, serious improvements had been recorded in this field and stressed their aim as making publishing part of an international activity.

"Publishers should take a more active role" said the Minister adding, "in 6 months, books by 13 Turkish authors have appeared in world bookshops. We are [now] encouraging our royalty companies to attend international book fairs."

Koc promised the convention to look into the problem of distributing publications and said the Turkish postal authority PTT would itself become part of the distribution network. "We will enable the distribution in the hands of the PTT to be cheaper and to expand towards the remotest places. We will include the PTT into the publishing sector," he said.

Referring to TYB chairman Cetin Tuzuner's remarks that the publishing sector in Turkey faced difficult times, the Minister said "when supermarkets open up, butchers close down" depicting the current trend.

Organisers: Publishing in trouble

Organizers of the convention made opening speeches in which they pointed out that the publishing sector in Turkey was going through difficult times particularly in scientific publications.

Bilgi University Dean Aydin Ugur, in his opening remarks for the convention, described publishing as a "life and death matter" for the academic word, noting that although there had been a serious increase in the number of universities in the country since the 1990s, there were very serious problems in publishing and distribution of scientific material.

TYB chairman Tuzuner, stressed that development was an integral part of science and could only be achieved through educated individuals. He said, "while the publisher benefits from the freedom of publishing, he also enables the most principle right of the individuals in the society, which is the right to express opinions."

Oran: High expectations for 2005 lead to big disappointments

The "TCK and Freedom of Publishing" session that followed the opening remarks started with a short introduction by the session's facilitator, publisher Mehmet Atay.

Atay referred to the post September 12, 1980 military takeover period in Turkey and said it was then that not only the freedom of publishing itself but even the freedom of possession of books at home had been subject to pressure.

The first speaker of the session, Prof.Dr. Baskin Oran, covered the human rights situation of last year and said that since the October 2001 constitutional amendment and the launch of the EU accession period, Turkish public opinion had great expectations from 2005. "Because expectations were so high, the disappointment was so big," Prof.Oran said.

Prof. Oran also criticised the state of the new Turkish Penal Code by saying "we have come face to face with what appears to be zombies of the articles of the previous Penal Code" and recalled that particularly article 301 allowed judges to punish those expressing critical opinions. He said article 216 and 288 were being used to suppress the freedom of expression and that developments due to these articles had reached "absurd dimensions".

He expressed belief that the reason for such problems was the reaction to globalisation and the activities of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) explaining, "the society came to believe that its national identity was under threat. This in turn influenced justice. In these days where we are entering an election period, the government has retreated in the face of Turkish nationalism."

Finkel: We must act bravely as journalists

Journalist Andrew Finkel, meanwhile, recalled that he had been put on trial under article 159 due to the "Sirnak 1988" article he wrote while working for the Sabah newspaper and summarised his views as a foreign journalist working within the scope of the freedom of expression in Turkey.

"Think of it like this," he said. "You are a guest at a dinner. They ask you how the soup is. In order not to be impolite, you say it is good. They ask you to tell the truth. But when you say it is a bit salty, you get the reply 'shame, shame'".

Finkel stressed that as long as journalists did not feel free and did not act bravely, the laws themselves would have little or no meaning and noted that the behaviour of some of his colleagues made him feel sad. Finkel added, "when as journalists we do not act with courage, how can we expect the government to act with courage?"

Ilkiz: Is this not shameful?

Focusing on obscenity and obscene publications at the convention, communications jurist Fikret Ilkiz noted that the relevant article 59 of the new Turkish Penal Code which was prepared by previous governments was being put into practice in a very short time, but in steps.

Ilkiz recalled that a case had been filed in the past against Henry Miller's "Tropic of Capricorn" on allegations of containing obscene remarks and that a total of 26 publishers acting under the initiative of publisher Ugur Cankocak had challenged the case, succeeding and clearing the name of the book.

He said that he had positive feelings for the first sentence of article 226 of the Penal Code titled "Obscenity" because it protected minors, but expressed concern that the 7th sentence of the same article which disallowed it to be applied to scientific work was being disregarded and ignored. "In cases that are open due to politics or other reasons, this 7th sentence will have no meaning," he argued.

Ilkiz also noted that members of the Prime Ministry Commission for the Protection of Minors from Obscene Publications were being utilised by courts as expert witnesses and argued that as result of this "public morality had been handed over to this commission."

Saying that there was nothing holistic between the laws, Ilkiz concluded: "I beg your pardon, I will continue to be immoral."

Inanici: 301 will enforce auto-censorship

Jurist Haluk Inanici who said that freedom of opinion was the insurance of democracy criticised article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code arguing that the main problem with it was that forced publishers and authors into auto-censorship.

Inanici said the concept of "degrading Turkisism" under article 301/1 was "a shame" and added that the main target of this article was to "protect the moral values of the Turkish race" while its enforcement would be limited to Turkey. Lawyer Inanici also criticised court cases against those who had criticised the jurisdiction under article 310/2 and called for an environment where limitations of freedom of expression by the government it would not be regarded as natural.

Zarakolu: New threat, Ataturk Law

Publisher Ragip Zarakolu who started his speech by saying, "I'm fed up from talking about 301, obscenity, counter-terrorism law, " stressed that even books that had been cleared by the Martial Law Tribunals of the past were being put on trial in today's Turkey.

Zarakol said a new Law on Offences Committed Against Ataturk was a "new threat" for the country and described it as a threat that would make justice ideological. As head of Belge Publications, Zarakol said "a wave of tolerance needs to be started from the Prime Minister downwards" but noted that the Prime Minister himself was opening libel cases against printed media for cartoons depicting him.

8. - Bianet - "ECHR Conference in Ankara":

Academics and jurists will meet April 28 to debate right to fair trial and freedom of expression. The cartoon crisis, racial remarks, freedom of expression for civil servants, media's right to access to information are aong the issues of debate.

ANKARA / 18 April 2006

The right to fair trial and freedom of expression will be the focus of a European Convention on Human Rights Conference organized by the Ankara University (AU) Political Sciences Faculty (SBF) and the Human Rights Center (IHM) in Ankara.

Academics and jurists working in the field of human rights will attend the one-day conference to be held April 28 Friday, at the faculty.

The session on freedom of expression which constitutes a large part of the Conference will cover a variety of daily issues from problems of freedom of expression in Turkey to expression of racist and violent opinions, as well as the limitation of expression of views provoking religious hatred as in the example of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten's controversial cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.

The April 28 Conference schedule is as follows:

1st Session: ECHR and Right to Fair Trial (10:00-12:15)
Session Chair: Lecturer Dr. Gokcen Alpkaya

* "The Concept of Court" Ertugrul C. Gurcan (AU, SBF, Constitutional Anayasa Law Discipline Researcher, IHM)

* "The Concept of Objective Impartiality" Dilan Mizrak (AU, Faculty of Law Researcher)

* "The Right of Defence with Attorney" Utku Kilinc (Director of Izmir Bar Association Human Rights Center)

* "The Right to Court Access and Application of Judicial Decisions"
Burcin Gungor (AU, SBF Graduate Student)

2nd Session: Debates on ECHR and Freedom of Expression (13:30 - 15:45)

Session Chair: Asst. Lecturer Dr. Ali Riza Coban (Kirikkale University, Faculty of Law, Constitutional Law)

* "The Freedom of Expression Problem in Turkey under the Copenhagen Criteria" Ersoy Kontaci (AU, Faculty of Law, Constitutional Law)

* "Racial Expression" Elif Kuzeci (Baskent University, Faculty of Law General Public Law Researcher)

* "Expression Containing Elements of Violence" Ozan Deger (AU, SBF, International Law Researcher, IHM)

* "The Issue of Limiting Expression Provoking Religious Hatred: The Jyllands-Posten Cartoon Incident" Hasan S. Vural (AU, SBF, Constitutional Law Discipline Researcher, IHM)

3rd Session: Debates on ECHR and Freedom of Expression 2 (14:00-17:45)

Session Chair: Asst. Lecturer Dr. Kerem Altiparmak (AU, SBF, Human Rights Discipline, IHM)

* "Freedom of Expression of Civil Servants" Funda Cetindag (AU, Faculty of Law Doctorate Student)

* "The Duty of the Media to Inform" Ozgur Temiz (AU, Faculty of Law Graduate Student)

* "The Right to Information: The Right for Confidentiality of Private Life and the Freedom of Expression" Cavidan Soykan.