ANKARA - Turkey's parliament Friday approved a package of amendments to a controversial new penal code, put on hold in March amid harsh criticism that it restricts press freedoms and contains technical flaws.
The code, which was first adopted in September amid much fanfare and praise, was a key condition that Ankara fulfilled to win a date for accession talks with the European Union at a summit in Brussels in December.
It overhauls Turkey's 78-year-old penal code borrowed from fascist Italy and has won praise for introducing a more liberal criminal justice system, in particular increasing penalties against human rights abusers and torturers and improving the rights of women and children.
The package adopted Friday contains improvements to a number of articles concerning the media, but press groups have denounced the changes as inadequate on the grounds that journalists may still end up in prison, even though jail sentences were purged from the press law in another reform last year.
The amendments notably scrap provisions that envisaged increased penalties for some offenses if they are committed via the media, such as slander, insult to the president and incitement to war.
The lawmakers also narrowed the scope of a controversial article envisaging up to 10 years in jail for those who accept benefits from foreigners in return for acting against "fundamental national interests."
A provision that would have increased the jail term to 15 years if the offender committed the crime by spreading propaganda via the media was removed from the code.
The article raised alarm when it emerged that explanatory notes in the draft bill said it targets those who may, for instance, advocate the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Cyprus and support claims that the massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire was genocide.
Other articles denounced by the media, however, remained unchanged.
Most of them concern the protection of privacy and the secrecy of judicial proceedings until suspects are formally charged.
Press groups say the provisions are too restrictive and will deal a heavy blow to investigative journalism.
Complete with Friday's amendments, the new penal code is now scheduled to enter force on June 1, if it is approved by the president.
A row between the government, which has its roots in a banned Islamist movement, and the secularist main opposition marred the debate on the amendments late Thursday when ruling party deputies proposed a last-minute change.
The amendment, approved later with support from AKP MPs, paves the way for those who run illegal educational institutions to escape with a fine rather than a jail term.
Turkey's secular elite is categorically opposed to easing restrictions on opening schools on the grounds that such a move will allow political Islamist movements to set up their own schools and train Islamist-leaning sympathisers.
The conservative AKP is often accused of having a secret Islamist agenda, even though it has disavowed its Islamist roots.
05/27/2005 14:08 GMT