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PACE calls Turkey to revise the Criminal Code
16:47, 23 June, 2012
YEREVAN, JUNE 23, ARMENPRESS: Strasbourg, 22.06.2012 - At the end of a
fact-finding visit to Turkey from 17 to 21 June 2012, PACE's
rapporteur for post-monitoring dialogue with Turkey Josette Durrieu
(France, SOC) has urged the Turkish authorities to speed up the
revision of the Penal Code and the anti-terror law in order to
strengthen freedom of expression. Armenpress was informed from press
service of PACE that Josette Durrieu said that at a time when Turkey
wished to turn the page of a history marked by coups d'état and the
major role of the army, the detention on remand of numerous
journalists, academics, generals and students, interminable trials,
and the situation in prisons cast a shadow over the ongoing process of
democratic reform.
`The boundary between the exercise of the journalist's profession -
which presupposes inquiry into the core of affairs - and the exposure
of journalists to charges of accommodating or abetting subversive
organisations must be made clear, as must the definition of terrorism.
These are some of the challenges to freedom of expression which must
find an answer in the revision of the Penal Code and the third and
forth packages of the judicial reform, which should be swiftly adopted
by parliament.'
`The efforts made by the Ministry of Justice to harmonise legislation
and legal practice with the case-law of the European Court of Human
Rights deserve to be highlighted and must be continued,' she stressed.
`Freedom of expression and freedom of the media are fundamental
principles that should be expressed in the new Turkish Constitution,'
the rapporteur added, welcoming in that connection the setting up by
parliament of a committee on conciliation on which the political
groups in parliament are equally represented, and which is responsible
for the preparation and unanimous adoption of the draft of the new
Constitution.
16:47, 23 June, 2012
YEREVAN, JUNE 23, ARMENPRESS: Strasbourg, 22.06.2012 - At the end of a
fact-finding visit to Turkey from 17 to 21 June 2012, PACE's
rapporteur for post-monitoring dialogue with Turkey Josette Durrieu
(France, SOC) has urged the Turkish authorities to speed up the
revision of the Penal Code and the anti-terror law in order to
strengthen freedom of expression. Armenpress was informed from press
service of PACE that Josette Durrieu said that at a time when Turkey
wished to turn the page of a history marked by coups d'état and the
major role of the army, the detention on remand of numerous
journalists, academics, generals and students, interminable trials,
and the situation in prisons cast a shadow over the ongoing process of
democratic reform.
`The boundary between the exercise of the journalist's profession -
which presupposes inquiry into the core of affairs - and the exposure
of journalists to charges of accommodating or abetting subversive
organisations must be made clear, as must the definition of terrorism.
These are some of the challenges to freedom of expression which must
find an answer in the revision of the Penal Code and the third and
forth packages of the judicial reform, which should be swiftly adopted
by parliament.'
`The efforts made by the Ministry of Justice to harmonise legislation
and legal practice with the case-law of the European Court of Human
Rights deserve to be highlighted and must be continued,' she stressed.
`Freedom of expression and freedom of the media are fundamental
principles that should be expressed in the new Turkish Constitution,'
the rapporteur added, welcoming in that connection the setting up by
parliament of a committee on conciliation on which the political
groups in parliament are equally represented, and which is responsible
for the preparation and unanimous adoption of the draft of the new
Constitution.