Article 301 of the Turkish penal code (Türk Ceza Kanunu = TCK)
took effect on 1 June 2005. Some not much informed circles say
that it is a controversial article, which IMO is not true.
Article 301 states the following:
"
a ) A person who publicly denigrates Turkishness (= Turkish identity, Turkish nation),
the Republic or the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, shall be punishable
by imprisonment of between six months and three years.
b ) A person who publicly denigrates the Government of the Republic of Turkey,
the judicial institutions of the State, the military or security organizations shall be
punishable by imprisonment of between six months and two years.
c) In cases where denigration of Turkishness is committed by a Turkish citizen
in another country the punishment shall be increased by one third.
d) Expressions of thought intended to criticize shall not constitute a crime."
Exactly the same cases are covered also in the laws of other countries,
for example in Germany "Volksverhetzung" article etc.:
http://bundesrecht.juris.de/stgb/BJN...028206377.html
http://www.lehrer-online.de/dyn/bin/...ner_organe.pdf
The punishment in Germany is even harder than in Turkey. For example
for the first case above it can go up to 5 years imprisonment.
Why should it be "controversial" if the same law is also in other
countries' penal code?
It is BS what some uninformed people are asking for or when
some others even do unresponsible propaganda with this.
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BTW, this is my own personal theory about "Free Speech" etc.:
####
The Theory about "Free Speech" Bla Bla and "Human Rights" Bla Bla
The call for "free spech" and "human rights" bla bla is
a tool of the war mongerers who want to destabilize a
nation to steal its natural resources like oil and gas, gold,
silver, copper, borium and other valuable materials, or
to force that country to buy more arms from them, or
to force the weak and poor countries to do what Big Brother wants.
It's the way how the US and their bulldog CIA threatens
the weak and the poor nations on this earth.
The concept of free speech is mostly abused by those who
demand it from others, but whereas in their own country they
long ago eliminated free speech with mighty laws.
Free speech is mostly abused by the war mongerers for propaganda,
lies, hate, discrimination, racism, fascism, crime and ethnic wars
to divide a nation, ie. for applying "divide and rule".
That's the tool of the imperialistic countries like the US and UK.
Even, once respected organizations like AI have become lackeys
of them as they get paid for such a "desired service at the right time"...
Russia and some other countries in the Caucasus recently have closed
and banned more than 100 foreign so called "human rights" organizations.
Well done Russia! We all know what's the intention of these enemies is...
RFE/RL is a worldwide propaganda radio station financed,
operated and fed by the CIA.
######
And, I don't share the views of some "human rights" organizations
who call for "more" "free speech" on the net (Internet, Usenet),
because IMO it simply gets brutally misused for propaganda as
we can witness each day what for example the Greek and the Armenian
propagandists do with their countless Anti-Turkish hate and lie postings
to countless newsgroups each day.
These HR organizations are far from reality, they live in an idealized
dreamland, but the reality is much brutal.
The solution would be to have more clear and fair laws,
yes, we need MORE (international) laws to regulate free speech!