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Both before and after the state of emergency that followed the botched coup in 2016, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has shown increasing authoritarian tendencies, rolling back an essentially weak democracy. Now a truly authoritarian regime is in place and instigates multiple attacks against fundamental rights and democratic institutions, such as arbitrary arrests and prosecutions of critical voices, extensive use of emergency decrees, massive purges of the state institutions and the witch hunt against the Academics for Peace, signatories of the Peace petition. As it is generally the case, free speech and academic freedom have been major casualties of this authoritarian drift. Gathering academics, lawyers and human rights defenders, this panel will offer a critical insight into current legal and political developments in Turkey and discuss the way forward in the defence of freedom of expression and academic freedom in the country.

Panel 1 – 14.30 – 16.00 Free Speech under Threat in Turkey: A Legal Approach

Chair: Noémi Lévy-Aksu (Birkbeck College)

Ayse Bingöl (Media Legal Defence): The criminalisation of speech under state of emergency regime.

Bill Bowring (Birkbeck College, Professor of Law): Recent Strasbourg case law on freedom of expression in Turkey.

Oya Aydın (Lawyer): What are the Academics for Peace accused of?

Panel 2 – 16.15 – 17.30 Trial Observation, Legal Intervention and Advocacy

Chair: Mehmet Uğur (University of Greenwich)

Georgia Nash (Article 19)

Sarah Clarke (Pen International)

Hanna Machlin (Index on Censorship)[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]

When: Tuesday 30 January 2018, 2:30-5:30pm
Where: Birkbeck College, London (Map)
Tickets: Free. Register here

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