threat to free speech

Herbie von Smalls · October 12, 2006

interesting leader article from friday's Financial Times

Yesterday's vote by France's National Assembly was an act of

diplomatic folly and electoral opportunism. It dealt a blow to

Turkey's hopes of joining the European Union and damaged the cause of

free speech within theEU itself.

..TX.-

By a margin of 106 to 19, the chamber backed a bill that could jail

people for a year for denying that there was an Armenian genocide

early last century. The move is an attempt to use legislation rather

than persuasion to change others' beliefs - a tactic already proving

counterproductive in Turkey and running counter to Europe's

traditions of free expression and open debate.

..TX.-

The vote was the result of transparent electioneering. French

Socialists insisted on pushing the bill through, while most deputies

kept away. Characterising the murder of up to 1.5m Armenians in

Anatolia in 1915-18 has no bearing on France's vital interests. But

it is an issue of great concern for the 450,000 French citizens of

Armenian origin ahead of the 2007 elections.

..TX.-

This comes at a terrible time for Turkey's troubled EU negotiations

and all they symbolise for an accommodation between Europe and the

Islamic world. If the bill ever became law, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,

Turkey's prime minister, could run the risk of arrest while on French

soil.

..TX.-

Fortunately, the legislation is likely to die in the French Senate.

But by allowing the measure to get this far, France's politicians

have damaged the case for sorely needed reform in Turkey itself.

Officials and politicians in Ankara demur from ditching Turkey's own

rules against "denigrating" the Turkish state, arguing that the

French proposal shows the limits of the EU's own respect for free

speech.

..TX.-

Europe's record is already blotted. Austria imprisoned the historian

David Irving for denying the holocaust, making him a martyr for

far-right sympathisers. Britain's government sought - but luckily

failed - to pass legislation that would have restricted the right to

criticise religion.

..TX.-

The risk is that France's strong-arm tactics will only bolster

Turkey's intolerance of any mention of Armenian genocide. As a

result, it is now more likely that Turkish writers will continue to

be prosecuted for such references - the indignity suffered among

others by Orhan Pamuk, the novelist who yesterday won the Nobel

prize.

..TX.-

Turkey's combination of prickliness and authoritarianism means it

will have to change radically if it is to join the EU one day. The

country needs to address the massacres of Armenian families that

preceded the creation of the modern Turkish state - whether they are

called genocide or not.

..TX.-

That does not excuse France's pandering politicians. President

Jacques Chirac's government was right yesterday to repudiate the

genocide bill. The rest of the political class must now follow - and

renounce the idea of legal curbs on what people say or think.

stressederic · October 12, 2006

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