'Ozgur Ulke' Banned!

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From: Arm The Spirit <ats at etext.org>
Subject: 'Ozgur Ulke' Banned!

Ozgur Ulke Closed Down!

Turkey Delivers New Blow To Freedom Of Expression
Journalists Fear Extra-Judicial Killings May Begin

     Turkey's leading pro-Kurdish daily newspaper Ozgur Ulke
(Free Country) was closed down on Friday, February 3 and banned
from further publication. The closure followed months of official
persecution directed at the paper in the form of bombings,
assassinations, confiscation, and the kidnapping of reporters and
editorial personnel. Journalists working for the newspaper now
fear they may be marked for further extra-judicial killings and
call upon colleagues and international organizations to take
urgent action in support of their guaranteed right to life and to
collect, express, and impart information.
     Friday's verdict for closure was passed by an Istanbul
Justice Court in line with a decision of the National Security
Council Coordination Board taken on January 5, 1995, to
"eliminate" all dissident voices in Turkey "within the boundaries
of law".
     "By closing down Ozgur Ulke, the state has delivered a
serious blow to the freedom of expression in Turkey and silenced
the only remaining opposition voice," Baki Karadeniz, the
newspaper's editor-in-chief, said Saturday. The newspaper has
been in print for nine months and was openly marked as a target
"to be eliminated" by Prime Minister Tansu Ciller in a secret
decree she sent to relevant government offices on November 30,
1994. Immediately after the decree, on December 3, 1994, Ozgur
Ulke's four-storey printing facility in Istanbul, its editorial
headquarters in the same city, and its main bureau in Ankara were
blasted to pieces in a serial bombing campaign. Following this
attack, police launched raids on Ozgur Ulke offices in different
parts of the country, and as of January 6, all issues of the
newspaper were seized by police and censored. At least 5
reporters were tortured by the police during the same period. In
the words of Karadeniz, "Such ruthless censorship and persecution
was not even witnessed after 1980 following the military coup."
     It is now the basic duty of journalists and writers
throughout the world and international organizations working on
human rights, press freedoms, and the freedom of expression to:

- Protest immediately the closure of Ozgur Ulke in violation of
international laws and agreements;

- Express concern for the safety of its employees and monitor
developments related to them;

- Support any new initiative in Turkey and/or abroad to resurrect
Ozgur Ulke in any form;

Send messages of protest/concern to Turkish authorities, Turkish
press organizations, and Turkish newspapers - now!

Background

     Friday's closure verdict was passed after the First Justice
Court in Istanbul on Thursday issued a verdict effectively
banning the newspaper and ordering for the confiscation of all of
its copies. Newspaper attorneys said they had appealed against
this sentence to a higher court on Friday, but before any legal
action could be taken, the Second Justice Court of the same city
passed the closure decision.
     Unlike previous routine orders for seizure issued by the
city prosecutor's office, both verdicts were signed by judges of
the Justice Courts, which are practically the lowest level
judicial authority in such cases. They claimed that "according to
evidence compiled against Ozgur Ulke" it was determined that this
newspaper was a continuation of the pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur
Gundem (Free Agenda) which was closed down by a State Security
Court last year.
     Citing that 24 separate orders for closure had been passed
against Ozgur Gundem, the verdicts signed by the two judges said
Ozgur Ulke operated out of the same facilities of the defunct
newspaper, that its telephone and fax numbers were identical,
that 102 of its writers were the same, and that the page layout
and contents of reporting and cartoons were also of a similar
nature. The newspaper was not invited, before the verdict was
passed, to make a defense.
     The court order concluded that under the evidence obtained,
"It is obvious that Ozgur Ulke is a continuation of Ozgur Gundem,
and under these circumstance, according to paragraph 2/2 of Press
Law article 5680, it should be confiscated." Policemen relaying
the order to newspaper executives said this effectively
"outlawed" the publication and if Ozgur Ulke continued to print,
its editorial board would be placed under immediate arrest.
Judicial authorities speaking to Ozgur Ulke executives said they
would have preferred not to carry out the order but that they
were under "high-level pressure" and feared that if they failed
to close the paper down, it would be dealt with "in
extra-judicial ways".
     Attorneys for Ozgur Ulke said Friday that the arbitrary
nature of the verdicts had not even allowed time for a higher
court to look into the issue, whereas the closure order could
have been returned if they were allowed to voice their defense.

Further Persecution

     The February 3, 1995 verdict comes after a massive crackdown
against Ozgur Ulke. On November 30, 1994, Prime Minister Ciller
issued a secret decree (an authentic copy was later obtained and
published in the Turkish press) for the "elimination" of the
newspaper, after which, on December 3, 1994, its four-storey
printing facility and headquarters in Istanbul and its Ankara
bureau were bombed. One person was killed and 18 others were
injured in the explosions.
     But Ozgur Ulke continued to print in other facilities. In
the first week of January 1995, the National Security Council
took a decision to "prevent the newspaper from printing" but
emphasized that this should be done "within the boundaries of
law". As of January 6, 1995, policemen started to wait outside
printing facilities to confiscate the paper as soon as it was
printed. Copies of the paper were then taken to a prosecutor
working around the clock and "inspected". Undesirable items,
often some 3 to 4 pages of the paper devoted to human rights,
were censored and it had to reprint with blank spots.
     In several cases, the same issue of the newspaper was
re-censored three times, each time targeting a new report.
Meanwhile, at least 5 reporters were detained and tortured by the
police while its Diyarbakir office and other offices were raided.
Journalists were "kidnapped" by the police and tortured. Some
were tortured to sign false "confessions" against the newspaper's
editorial board!
     Ozgur Ulke and its alleged predecessor Ozgur Gundem have
been a major target for Turkish "censorship", often taking the
form of violent attacks. Prior to this recent "campaign", 20
Ozgur Ulke reporters and distributors were killed by
"unidentified" death squads and 4 reporters were kidnapped. The
mutilated body of one of the reporters was found weeks later
after being tortured and shot. At least 35 journalists and
workers of the newspaper have been imprisoned and 238 issues have
been seized. This latest campaign, however, is different in
context and it was clear from the very beginning that it aimed to
close down the newspaper altogether.

(Source: Action-on-Turkey/London)


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