Judicial Reform Bill ─ Just placatory gesture or start of real change?
Feb.10.─ Reporters Without Borders takes note of a government bill aimed at loosening Turkey’s legislative straightjacket, especially as regards the media, and hopes that it represents a first step towards more significant reforms, or else its impact will be minimal.
“By finally addressing certain major failings in the Turkish judicial system, this bill is a step in the right direction,” Reporters Without Borders said. “This recognition of the shortcomings is welcome, contrasting as it does with the usual denial on the part of senior officials. But the bill envisages just a few adjustments whose effects will be very limited if legislators think they suffice and refrain from more thorough reforms. Patching holes is not enough. Civil liberties will not be properly guaranteed until the Anti-Terrorism Law, the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure are completely purged of the repressive attitudes that pervade them.”
Drafted by the justice ministry and approved by the cabinet, the bill was sent last week to the national assembly, where it will soon be put to a debate and vote. Its declared aims are to “make the services provided by the judicial system more effective” and to introduce a generalized “suspension of prosecutions and sentences in media cases.”
The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly ruled against Turkey for violating freedom of expression. The country’s legislation and the tendency of the courts to prioritize security concerns are both largely to blame. Reporters Without Borders presented its recommendations on this issue in a report released in June 2011.
Generalized three-year suspension
The most spectacular aspect of the bill seems to be the suspension of a range of prosecutions and sentences affecting journalists ...
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