High level conference on freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey organized in Ankara

The High Level Conference on Freedom of Expression and Media Freedom in Turkey was organized on Tuesday in Ankara. Speaking at the conference, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said that Turkey was committed to take continued measures to improve its human rights record, adding that latest reforms in legal system had begun yielding results. "The reform package passed in 2011 and an action plan which was launched the same year to curb human rights violations had begun yielding its results. In 2012, Turkey was no more the country with the most human rights violation cases at the European Court of Human Rights. And we are getting ready to make sure that we stay out of the top-three list forever," Ergin said, adding that the reforms included granting individual access to the Constitutional Court as well as the establishment of settlement commissions. Ergin also made it clear that he found the reports published by some international media associations about Turkey unjust. Stating that the Committee to Protect Journalists said in its report that 76 journalists were under arrest in Turkey in 2012, Ergin said, "However, the figure for the year 2011 in the committee's report is eight." Noting that 70 people who are included in the committee's report of Turkish journalists under arrest for 2012 have been under a judicatory process, they are unable to understand how those people who were not previously considered as journalists were considered as journalists in the report for 2012. Also speaking at the same conference, head of the Supreme Court of Appeals Ali Alkan said that freedom of expression was a key issue in the democratization process. "Real indicators of the democratization process of a state are observed in the field of freedom of expression; tendency towards authoritarianism initially surface over issues related with freedom of expression," Alkan added.