Editor Hrant Dink was killed on 19 January 2007. In this interview with Nouritza Matossian, published in Index on Censorship magazine shortly after his death, Dink described his commitment to free expression and reconciliation between Armenians and Turks
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Cihan Hayirsevener, the editor of a local newspaper in the northwestern Turkish city of Bandirma has been shot dead. The shooting follows threats made against him over his coverage of a corruption scandal. The 53-year-old was walking to the newspaper’s office shortly on Friday when he was shot in the leg three times by an unidentified assailant, the Anatolia news agency reported. One of the bullets ruptured a vital artery and he later died in hospital. Read more here
A government directive published on 13 November lifted all remaining restrictions on the media’s use of minority languages. The use of Kurdish had been allowed in public printed media and one public TV station, TRT6. However, privately-owned radio and TV stations were limited to 5 hours maximum of Kurdish language broadcast per week. Moreover, all Kurdish TV broadcasting was required to provide Turkish subtitles, making live broadcasting impossible. Read more here
This is a guest post by Felix Colchester
The Turkish government’s much anticipated “Kurdish Initiative” was discussed in parliament on 10 November, with many political parties eager to have their say on how best to solve the long-standing “Kurdish problem”. Speculation is rife as to the details of the initiative; thought to be amongst its key policies are the decentralisation of power away from Ankara, a more inclusive definition of citizenship, and the use of dialogue to pacify and eventually integrate militant groups such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) back into the political process. Why, then, if the “Kurdish Initiative” seems to favour mediation over military campaigns and dialogue over coercion, does it remain almost impossible for the Turkish media to discuss the initiative?
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