H. E. Necmettin Erbakan
Prime Minister of Turkey
Prime Minister’s Office
Ankara
Turkey
Vienna, 21 November 1996
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in 90 countries, is deeply concerned about certain recent threats to press freedom in Turkey.
IPI is informed that the Turkish government has threatened to restrict the country’s independent media, which in recent months has played a key role in uncovering several scandals related to security or corruption.
On 19 November 1996, Justice Minister Sevket Kazan, during a debate on media, told parliament that the government wants to “bring the issue of lies in the media under control.” IPI fears that the proposed new legislation aims at preventing the press from publishing issues whose dissemination is not desired by government.
We also fear that this legislation will economically weaken the press by introducing new taxation on advertising expenditures and bring additional burdens upon distribution companies.
IPI believes that censorship of the media, whether direct or indirect, is unacceptable in a democracy. Thus, laws restricting the right of the media to freely gather and distribute information should not be introduced, or, if they already exist, should be abolished.
The international media community believes that Turkey is in need of more liberalisation on the issues of press freedom and human rights. This has been frequently promised, but the present campaign against the Turkish press being waged by the government gives rise to anxious expectation of more dangerous developments. It was the founder of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Atatürk, who said that the best remedy for the abuse of press freedom was press freedom itself.
IPI therefore urges Your Excellency to do everything in your power to ensure that such legislation is not passed and that members of the independent press in Turkey are allowed to carry out their profession without restriction.
We thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director
