ISTANBUL - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday he favoured amending a widely criticised law used to prosecute dozens of intellectuals, but did not say when his government would do so.
"We are not resisting (changes) to Article 301. If we get a reasonable proposal, we can work on it," Erdogan told the annual assembly of media watchdog International Press Institute (IPI) in Istanbul.
Article 301 calls for jail terms of between six months and three years for "denigrating Turkishness," the Republic and state institutions such as the government, parliament, the judiciary and the security forces, and requires an increased penalty if the crime is committed abroad.
Dozens of intellectuals, among them 2006 Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, have been charged under the article, mostly for contesting the official line on the massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire.
The law has also been blamed for fueling nationalist hatred towards ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was convicted under the article and was gunned down in January by a suspected ultra-nationalist after receiving threats.
The European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join, has slammed the article on many occasions as a threat to freedom of speech and has urged Ankara to either amend or scrap it.
In a resolution adopted Monday at its general assembly, the IPI urged Turkey to revise Article 301 and purge its penal code of "all articles used to restrict journalists` ability to report freely and express their opinion."
05/15/2007 15:19 GMT