24 March 2006

1. "Nineteen injured as Kurds clash with Turkish police", Nineteen people were injured Thursday when Turkish riot police broke up a demonstration in the southeastern city of Hakkari against the arrest of a Kurdish politician, the regional government said.

2. "Kurds Unhappy Despite Language Broadcasts", in a fresh milestone for minority rights in Turkey, private television channels will begin Kurdish language broadcasts today, but Kurdish activists say their community needs many more reforms. Turkey is under pressure from the European Union, which it hopes to join, to improve the cultural rights of its ethnic minorities, especially the 12 million-strong Kurds who until the 1990s were banned from using their language at all in public.

3. "Turkey: In support of freedom of expression", from 1-10 April 2006, Amnesty International groups around the world will be asking members of the public to sign postcards urging the Turkish authorities to abolish Article 301 of the Turkish penal code.

4. "Report: France pushes for more rights pressure on Turkey", France is pushing the European Union to take a tougher line on human rights in accession negotiations with Turkey, in a move the European Commission fears will damage relations with Ankara, according to an article published in the influential Financial Times yesterday.

5. "Ethnic, religious nationalism threats to human rights in 2005", one can seek neither humanity nor human rights in a country where both ethnic and religious nationalism have been rising, Baskin Oran, a prominent professor of political science who drew up a report reviewing and analyzing human rights developments in Turkey, has warned.

6. "Children Should Participate in Media", BIA and the UNICEF- Turkey organized the final journalist training seminar on 'Reporting on Children's Rights' in Kocaeli. The local reporters discussed the issues that are generally neglected and the reasons for neglect.

1. - AFP - "Nineteen injured as Kurds clash with Turkish police":

DIYARBAKIR / 23 March 2006

Nineteen people were injured Thursday when Turkish riot police broke up a demonstration in the southeastern city of Hakkari against the arrest of a Kurdish politician, the regional government said.

Clashes erupted when police ordered the group to disperse on grounds that their protest was illegal.

The demonstrators pelted the officers with stones and attacked them with sticks. Police, backed by armored vehicles, retaliated with tear gas and fired in the air, the witnesses said.

Nineteen people, including 10 police officers, were injured and 21 protestors were detained, the Hakkari regional government said in a statement, adding that there had been no serious injuries.

The protestors were demonstrating against the arrest of Sebahattin Suvagci, the provincial head of a now-dissolved pro-Kurdish party, on charges that he aided and abetted armed separatist Kurdish rebels.

Turkish officials have in the past accused Kurdish politicians of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting the Ankara government for self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984.

Tensions in the Hakkari region have been running high since the November bombing of a Kurdish-owned bookstore in the town of Semdinli, which two soldiers and a Kurdish informer are accused of perpetrating.

The incident sparked deadly riots and accusations that Ankara had failed to purge rogue groups in the security forces accused of summary executions, extortion, kidnappings and drug-smuggling in the 1990s, when the PKK campaign in the southeast was at its peak.

2. - Reuters - "Kurds Unhappy Despite Language Broadcasts":

DIYARBAKIR / 23 March 2006 / by Gareth Jones

In a fresh milestone for minority rights in Turkey, private television channels will begin Kurdish language broadcasts today, but Kurdish activists say their community needs many more reforms. Turkey is under pressure from the European Union, which it hopes to join, to improve the cultural rights of its ethnic minorities, especially the 12 million-strong Kurds who until the 1990s were banned from using their language at all in public.

“After many bureaucratic setbacks, we have finally won the right to broadcast in Kurdish,” said Cemal Dogan, director of Gun TV, one of three broadcasters now allowed to show Kurdish language programs. The others are Soz TV and a radio station. “It is a small step, we still face many restrictions. But it is very important for Turkey and we are happy,” he said.

Broadcasts will be limited to 45 minutes a day, or four hours a week, and must carry Turkish subtitles. They cannot air educational programs teaching the Kurdish language or broadcast programs aimed at children, such as cartoons. Gun will target 1.5 million viewers in Diyarbakir, the biggest city of Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast region, and its environs with programs about history, culture and health.

Turkish state television and radio already provide limited broadcasting in Kurdish and several other minority languages including Arabic, but Dogan said nobody watches them as they consist almost entirely of news items from the previous week. Ankara has dragged its feet over allowing Kurdish language broadcasts due to fears this could fan political separatism. Turkish security forces have battled Kurdish rebel fighters since 1984 in a conflict which has cost at least 30,000 lives. “With time, people will see there is nothing to be afraid of, that allowing these broadcasts can help to resolve the Kurdish problem,” said Dogan.

Others are less optimistic. They say Ankara’s slow, grudging broadcasting reforms are symbolic of its wider approach to the Kurds and say Turkey only acts because of heavy EU pressure. “If I were (Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip) Erdogan, I would allow free, unlimited broadcasting in Kurdish, except for politically sensitive material,” said lawyer Sezgin Tanrikulu, head of the Diyarbakir bar association.

But rising Turkish nationalism, along with looming elections due by 2007, make it harder for Erdogan to act, he said. Tanrikulu said this situation benefits only the Kurdish rebels, who exploit people’s sense of frustration. Violence in the southeast fell after the 1999 capture of rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, but has flared up again in the past two years.

Many Kurds welcomed Erdogan’s visit to Diyarbakir last August when he acknowledged for the first time the existence of a “Kurdish problem,” Tanrikulu said, but his subsequent failure to back up promises with action has disappointed local people. Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir agrees. “Tensions are rising. The government does not have a sound, well-based plan for resolving the Kurdish problem,” he told Reuters.

Baydemir’s Democratic Society Party (DTP) wants a general amnesty for the rebels, more cultural rights and autonomy for the Kurds and a lowering of the 10 percent threshold required to win seats in the Turkish Parliament. This rule effectively bars the DTP, which has strong support in the southeast but which nationally has yet to win more than 10 percent of the vote.

“If we achieve these things, I do not think the Kurds will want independence from Turkey,” Baydemir said.

3. - Amnesty International - "Turkey: In support of freedom of expression":

24 March 2006

From 1-10 April 2006, Amnesty International groups around the world will be asking members of the public to sign postcards urging the Turkish authorities to abolish Article 301 of the Turkish penal code.

Amnesty International believes that Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code poses a threat to the fundamental right to freedom of expression. Individuals including human rights defenders, publishers, prominent writers, and journalists, are being prosecuted because they have dared to discuss publicly the "official" version of the country's history or the role of the army, or have caricatured state officials.

The case against Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk for comments on the deaths of Kurds and Armenians in Turkey has been dropped. However, this is too small a step on the road to freedom of expression.

Amnesty International members are appealing to members of the public to put pressure on the Turkish authorities to immediately stop prosecutions against individuals under the article and to abolish it in its entirety.

4. - Turkish Daily News - "Report: France pushes for more rights pressure on Turkey":

ANKARA / 24 March 2006

France is pushing the European Union to take a tougher line on human rights in accession negotiations with Turkey, in a move the European Commission fears will damage relations with Ankara, according to an article published in the influential Financial Times yesterday. EU leaders are also facing calls from Paris to thrash out a new, more rigorous strategy for enlargement, an issue that foreign ministers will discuss at a summit scheduled for yesterday, it said.

Some members of Germany's ruling Christian Democrats also back the plan, according to the newspaper, and they say the EU would be able to admit big new member states to the 25-nation bloc only after major institutional reform, such as that envisaged in the proposed constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters last year.

The French initiatives deepen the commission's concerns that Paris and its allies are seeking to frustrate Turkey's bid for membership a mere six months after the EU agreed to begin the accession process, said the paper.

“Some member states want to introduce new goalposts in a non-transparent manner,” a senior commission official was quoted as saying. “This may backfire because it is not considered in Turkey that we are playing a fair game.”

Paris insists it is acting in good faith and does not seek to obstruct the negotiations. It adds that worries about enlargement played a large role in the French public's rejection of the European constitution in a referendum last year and that leaders need to consider seriously the limits of the EU's capacity to absorb new members, the newspaper noted.

The first French push, according to the paper, is to link negotiations on education and culture -- normally one of the least contentious parts of enlargement talks -- to human rights criteria. Paris says the education and culture “chapter” has to take into account human rights issues, such as Turkish textbooks that refer to minorities as untrustworthy.

The commission and countries such as Britain respond that it is unfair to add new conditions to negotiations that have traditionally focused on a state's record in adopting EU laws, it noted.

While the EU is still trying to reach a deal among the member states on whether to link Turkey's planned accession talks on education and culture chapter to the bloc's political criteria for entry, Turkey dismisses any linkage between these criteria and the talks process.

“It is against the philosophy of the negotiating process to establish a direct link between political harmonization and the negotiating process,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan said on Wednesday.

Although the EU's 25 member states have agreed to start another chapter -- on science and technology, no negotiations have started because the current Austrian presidency of the EU would like to begin talks on both chapters at the same time.

5. - Turkish Daily News - "Ethnic, religious nationalism threats to human rights in 2005":

ANKARA / 24 March 2006 / by Emine Kart

One can seek neither humanity nor human rights in a country where both ethnic and religious nationalism have been rising, Baskin Oran, a prominent professor of political science who drew up a report reviewing and analyzing human rights developments in Turkey, has warned.

The report, titled “Turkey -- Balance Sheet of Human Rights; 2005 Monitoring Report,” is a product of a project on constitutional citizenship and minority rights as part of a democratization program being conducted by the Istanbul-based Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV).

“There's no point in seeking humanity and human rights at a place where there is an alarming ideological escalation in both ethnic and religious nationalism,” Professor Oran said on Wednesday in an interview with the Turkish Daily News ahead of a Thursday press conference in Istanbul at which he and Etyen Mahçupyan, director of TESEV's democratization program, released the report.

Unbelievable ethnic Turkish nationalism was seen in Turkey in 2005, and this fact has even penetrated the judicial system, Oran believes. He offered two reasons for this situation: reactions in Turkey against globalization and reactions to armed Kurdish nationalism.

“It seems that we could not pinpoint the two reasons that caused a rise in ethnic Turkish nationalism, and thus we experienced a very bad and sad year for human rights,” Oran said.

Yet he sounded hopeful for 2006, saying, “We believe that the year 2006 will be a much better year than last year for human rights.”

6. - Bianet - "Children Should Participate in Media":

BIA and the UNICEF- Turkey organized the final journalist training seminar on 'Reporting on Children's Rights' in Kocaeli. The local reporters discussed the issues that are generally neglected and the reasons for neglect.

KOCAELI / 22 March 2006 / by Emine Ozcan

"The Network for Monitoring and Covering Media Freedom and Independent Journalism" (BIA²) Project by the IPS Communications Foundation and the Turkey Unit of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) organized the seventh and final training seminar on 'Reporting on Children's Rights' in Kocaeli on March 18-19. The seminar was held at the Derbent Uygulama Hotel of the Kocaeli University.

After a two-day training, the participants agreed to allocate more space to news that have the participation of children, to pay attention to the laws when preparing news about children and to desert the perspective that victimizes children.

Some of the participants planned to open up more space for children in their publications or broadcasts, while others considered projects to redesign existing children's publications.

"Media is judging by saying 'criminal child'"

"I have been a journalist for many years now," said Ergun Ozmen from the Bilecik "Yeni Pazar" (New Sunday) newspaper. "I realized that I have been making a lot of mistakes without knowing and also learned how I should report on children."

"I realized that the media, when reporting on children, is actually most of the time, judging children," added Ozmen. "I realized that there is no 'criminal child,' but only child, who has been pushed into committing crime."

"Although I always supported complying with children's rights when reporting, I never quite knew how," said Talip Kaynar from Istanbul's "Ulkede Ozgur Gundem" (Free Agenda in the Country) newspaper. Kaynar said the training provided a comprehensive view on the issue.

"Our newspaper's children's page has a new meaning now"

Devrim Derin from Balikesir's "Yeni Haber" (New News) newspaper, said they allocate a page for the articles of secondary-school students. "Now that one page seems more meaningful," said Derin. "I am thinking of ways to improve it."

"I have realized that it is not enough to allocate space for children or to prepare more reports on children," said Tolga Cevikkol from Galatasaray University. "The question: 'what kind of a report on children?' is the important question." He said he would follow the media from a different perspective from now on.

"To have a comprehensive look at the media"

Mutlucan Sahin from Galatasaray University said he believed the meeting of local and national media employees in Kocaeli would lead to positive outcomes in practical terms.

"The fact that the seminar focused on specific issues we all knew about but did not pay attention to helped us have a better and more comprehensive look at the media," said Sahin.

First women and now, children...

Zuriye Iskender from the Zonguldak "Son Havadis" (Latest News) newspaper, who had attended the training seminar on "Reporting on Women's Rights, said from now on, children's psychology will be a priority for her in writing news. "I had learned a lot at the seminar (on Reporting on Women's Rights)," said Iskender. "And I had applied the things I learned after returning home. I got very positive results. Now I cannot wait to put into practice things I learned about reporting on children."

Degisim Medya is building a school

"We paid attention to allocate space for children in our publication," Huseyin Orhan, the general manager of Zonguldak Eregli's "Degisim Medya" (Change Media) newspaper. "But I realized here how much attention we need to pay." Orhan said the training seminars should continue so that more people benefit from them.

Orhan said Degisim Media was preparing to build a school in a village in Zonguldak and added the training provided motivation to speed up their plans.

Media's role in rights activism

Zafer Beyaz, an official from Bursa Mustafa Kemal Pasa Medya Dost said he learned new things at the seminar. "It is important for me to learn that children are not dangerous but they are in danger," said Beyaz. "I always used to act thinking children will always stay as children."

"I will listen to my child side when preparing news," said Canan Aktas from Bursa's Dost (Friend) FM. "So it will be easier for me to empathise with children." Aktas said she was not sure she would pursue a career in journalism before she came to the seminar. She said she changed her mind after realizing how much journalism could contribute to rights activism.

Onat: Media has a big responsibility

On the first day of the meeting, Yasemin Onat, a lawyer from the Antalya Bar Association, opened a discussion on basic legal standards aimed at raising awareness about the rights of the child.

Children's rights activist Onat talked about the main agreements also ratified by Turkey and gave examples of children's rights violations by the media. Onat also argued that children are unable to adequately benefit from the means of mass communication. Children are legally victimized through the use of expressions such as: "criminal child or homeless child" in the media, argued Onat.

Legal necessities of perspective with a focus on children "There is no 'dangerous child,' but 'child who is in danger'," said Onat. She told the participants how they could comply with laws through the language they use, talked about the media's power and explained how the participants could play a positive role by preparing news with a focus on the children.

The participants, in a workshop directed by Onat, analysed the expectations of the children, the families, and the society from the media, and the media managers' expectations from their employees.

Child overlooked by the media

Incilay Cangoz, an academic at the Communications Department of Anadolu University, questioned with the participant, whether the media can be objective or not.

The fact that the poor, children, the elderly, and women are not represented in the media is against the principle of objectivity, argued Cangoz. She added that this recreates the inequality present within the society.

One of the participants said the viewers and readers in Turkey act with their emotions, adding that if the language is purified of emotions when reporting on children, the news would not be effective enough.

Cangoz said it is important to leave a distance when preparing news. "It is more effective and the right thing to do to prepare a deep news with a cool-headed perspective," said Cangoz.

Sema Hosta, who is responsible for the UNICEF Communications Program talked about how a "Child-Friendly Media Network" could help media organizations communicate to produce reports that oversee the rights of the child and implement self-monitoring.

Hosta also distributed the participants brochures on the avian influenza and underlined the importance of providing elements that would inform the reader, listener or viewer when preparing news.

Bianet Children's Issues Editor Kemal Ozmen said reporters, when writing news about children who have been pushed into committing crimes, should ask: "how and why are these children pushed into committing crimes and who pushes them?" Ozmen held a workshop with the participants and evaluated news clips.

At the end of the workshop, the participants talked about the mistakes in the news clips they evaluated.

Respecting children's rights when conducting interviews

Journalist Ragip Duran from the Communications Department of the Galatasaray University talked to the participants about the issues to be paid attention to when conducting interviews with the children.

Duran highlighted the importance of treating children as adults. Duran said reporters should ask: "what are you thinking?" instead of "what are you feeling?" for a more protective attitude.Children should have the chance to participate

Ezgi Koman from "Coluk Cocuk," a children's magazine, said participation of children in the media enhances the pluralism principle of democracy.

Participants discussed the participation of children and agreed children need to be given more chances to express themselves.

Koman drew attention to the principle of equality and showed participants examples of projects like news, short films, and Internet sites, all prepared by children. The participants agreed that children can produce the right things when given the opportunity to express themselves. They said a perspective to make children invisible is the reason why children do not have this opportunity.