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Freedom of Speech in trouble - writers going to trial

typewriter.jpg News in Turkey - "One of Turkey's leading authors was acquitted Thursday of "insulting Turkishness" in a novel that touched on the mass killings of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire." Elif Shafak, a University of Arizona assistant professor, 

"was charged over the words uttered by fictional Armenian characters in her novel "The Bastard of Istanbul." In the book, an Armenian character refers to "Turkish butchers."

And we know that Oriana Fallaci, one of Italy's best-known writers, was on trial for her writings about Islam, when she passed away just last week. And there's the current Al-Dura trial in France where writers are on trial for their right to expose state-owned televison video fakery. And there are trials as a result of publishing "the" cartoons of Mohammed.

We're not talking Cuba or China here. These countries  are on a slippery slope.

Michelle mentions this citing a different source as well.


Posted on Thursday, September 21, 2006 at 07:10AM by Registered CommenterSTICKY NOTES in | Comments1 Comment

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Reader Comments (1)

It would help if the right wing bloggers asked the president and secretary of state to say something---anything---on behalf of the 60-70 writers, editors, publishers and translators being charged for thought and speech crimes in Turkey. My book, SPOILS OF WAR, is being prosecuted for raising issues about the Kurdish insurgency and Turkish response. But because Turkey is a friend of the U.S., and a stalwart military proto-fascist state, Bush bows to them and remains utterly silent. Freedom and human rights in the mideast? Fat chance.
September 21, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterJohn Tirman

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