Turkey should stop prosecuting the author of an investigative book about the murder of well-known ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, a European media watchdog has said in a letter to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Author Nedim “ener, himself a journalist, said earlier this month he is facing up to 28 years in prison if convicted in two cases on charges of obtaining classified documents and insulting government officials by claiming an intelligence
The killing led to international condemnation and a debate within Turkey about free speech. “ener’s book, “Dink Murder and Intelligence Lies,” claims police and military officials ignored tips about the 2007 killing before it occurred. The government has launched an investigation into the allegations.
Miklos Haraszti, the media freedom representative of the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said, “Justice must not be degraded into an act of revenge by the criticized authorities.”
“What he did was critically assess the events leading up to Hrant Dink’s murder, and the deficiencies afterwards in the handling of the case and in the prosecution of the perpetrators,” Haraszti wrote in the letter to Davuto“lu. A Turkish government spokesman declined to comment on the criticism.
Dink was shot outside his offices on Jan. 19, 2007 in an alleged nationalist killing because he had campaigned for better relations between Turkey and Armenia. He had been prosecuted several years before his death for describing the early 20th-century mass killings of Armenians as genocide.
Haraszti also urged Turkey to reform laws that restrict free speech. “By dropping the charges against “ener, Turkey could now stop punishing the messengers of unwelcome news, and instead carry out much-needed legal reform to ensure freedom of expression,” Haraszti said.
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