Reporters Without Borders Calls On Turkey To Stop Legal Hounding Of Journalists

ANKARA - The Reporters without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres) called on Turkey to stop legal hounding of journalists satirizing state officials.
Releasing a statement after journalist-writer Fikret Otyam, 79, was sentenced to pay a fine on April 5th in a defamation case filed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Reporters without Borders said that it was at least the fourth case the prime minister has brought against a journalist since December 2004.
Calling on Turkey to pay respect freedom of expression and of the press, and fundamental principles of European judicial standards, the Reporters without Borders said, ''Turkish journalists, like their European colleagues, should be allowed make satirical comments about the official figures without fear of being systematically dragged before the courts. Otherwise they will be in danger of operating self-censorship which is very damaging to press freedom.''
Earlier, Prime Minister Erdogan launched several cases against a satirical weekly, Penguen, for a cartoon it carried on February 24th, 2005 captioned, ''The world of Tayyip''.