Four Reporters Who Criticized Prohibition of Armenian Genocide Conference Acquitted

PanARMENIAN.Net - Four prominent Turkish journalists were let off charges of insulting Turkey's courts yesterday, a fifth, however remained on trial. The five were indicted in December after they criticized a court's decision to block a conference in Istanbul that was to discuss the so-called Armenian genocide. The prosecution charged the five journalists under articles that penalize insults to the judiciary and attempts to influence the justice, such charges can carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years. The journalists accused were Hasan Cemal, İsmet Berkan, Haluk Şahin and Erol Katircioglu. The charges were dropped on grounds that prosecutors had not filed charges within the required two-month period following the publication of the articles. The trial of Murat Belge a columnist for the liberal Radikal newspaper will continue. Like Sahin, Katircioglu and Belge are also columnists for Radikal, while Berkan is also the newspaper's editor-in-chief. Cemal is a senior editorialist for the mass-selling Milliyet, reported Hurriyet. To remind, the journalists stood trial because they criticized the court decision to bar the Armenian Genocide Conference in Istanbul.