Academic

By firstamendmentblogger

Global Free Speech Update

Turkey:  Nadim Sener, author of "The Dink Murder and Intelligence Lies," faced anti-terrorism charges this week in an Istanbul court.  Sener's book accuses law enforcement officials of negligence and a cover-up in failing to thwart the 2007 murder of Hrant Dink, the man my friends in Istanbul describe as "Turkey's Martin Luther King."  Dink was editor in chief of the Turkish-Armenian paper Agos, and faced years of persecution for advocating on behalf of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.  Ironically, if Sener is convicted, he could spend 28 years in prison - 8 years longer than Dink's assassin. 

United States: Peter Lance, author of "Triple Cross, How Bin Laden's Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets, and the FBI," is being threatened with a libel action by Illinois prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald who says the book falsely accuses him of "discrediting" evidence against al Qaeda's involvement in the 1998 embassy bombings and attacks on 9/11.  Fitzgerald also threatened to sue Harper Collins if it publishes a new edition of the book. 

The Maldives:  President Mohamed Nasheed submitted a series of bills to Parliament as a first step towards much needed reform.  One of the bills would amend the penal code to qualify defamation as a civil rather than criminal offense.  The Maldives constitution does not protect freedom of expression or of the press, and the island nation ranks "not free" on the annual Freedom House report.  

Sudan: Couple of highlights of a new press law passed by the National Assembly:  (1) The National Press Council can shut down newspapers for 3 days without a court order, which is actually better than the proposed bill that allowed for indefinite closure.  The Council's neutrality is doubtful, however.  Eight of its 21 member are appointed by the President whose office is vested with sole oversight.  (2)  The Press Council no longer has authority to penalize journalists.  That authority now rests in courts of law.  However, there's no limit on the penalties that can be imposed, contrary to a prior cap of $21,000 on fines instituted by the Council.  Additional details of the new law have yet to be reported, but the bill under consideration also gave the National Council discretionary licensing authority, allowed it to remove equipment from newspaper offices, and to examine journalists for their suitability in the profession (whatever that means). 

-Kathleen A. Bergin 

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on June 20, 2009 (boomark / email).