Censorship in Turkey

A decision in Istanbul's seventh high criminal court this week has reopened the prosecution of bestselling Turkish novelist Elif Shafak on charges of "insulting Turkishness".


The charges were brought under Article 301 the Turkish criminal code, which was also used in the prosecution of Orhan Pamuk earlier this year. The charges were reportedly based on remarks made by a character of Armenian ancestry in her novel, The Bastard of Istanbul - the character describes the death of Armenians during the first world war as a genocide. The case was thrown out last month after Shafak argued that the book was a work of literature and that comments made by fictional characters could not be used to press charges against an author.

Shafak joins a roster of more than 60 writers and journalists to be charged under Article 301 of the Turkish criminal code since its introduction last year. University professors, journalists and novelists such as Perihan Magden, Orhan Pamuk and now Shafak have been charged under legislation drawn so broadly as to criminalise a wide range of critical opinions. Writers not only face the prospect of a three-year jail term, but the prosecutions also lay them open to a campaign of intimidation and harassment waged by rightwing agitators.