Showing posts with label Atilla Yayla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atilla Yayla. Show all posts

Monday, January 28, 2008

"Turkey’s Most Pressing Problem": "Freedom of Expression"

BBC: A Turkish court has handed down a 15-month suspended jail term to an academic found guilty of insulting the state's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Professor Atilla Yayla said the trial highlighted the limits on free speech and academic debate in Turkey.
His crime was to suggest in academic discussion that the early Turkish republic was not as progressive as portrayed in official books.

His lawyers say they will lodge an immediate appeal.

Professor Yayla told the BBC he was prepared to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

"I want to emphasise again and again that Turkey's most pressing problem is freedom of expression," he said. Academic sentenced over Ataturk >>> By Sarah Rainsford

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