Turkish Court Overturns Fine for Cartoon Depicting Leader as Horse

By: SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer (AP) A caricature depicting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a horse being ridden by one of his advisers did not violate the leader's rights, an appeals court has ruled, overturning a fine levied against the newspaper that published the cartoon, the newspaper said Friday.

The decision is a partial victory for freedom of expression in Turkey, which has come under criticism for laws restricting free speech as it seeks to join the European Union.

EU officials have criticized the Turkish premier for suing cartoonists and have called on the country to change laws that have been used to charge novelist Orhan Pamuk and dozens of other people for expressing opinions.

Erdogan sued the left-wing newspaper Evrensel saying the caricature, published in April 2004, had offended him. A court in Ankara last year ruled in favor of Erdogan and ordered the paper to pay 10,000 Turkish lira (US$8,000; euro6,000) in compensation.

The appeals court, however, said the caricature had made a point "in a striking way to draw attention and by adding humor," but ruled that this did not constitute "an attack on the personal rights" of the premier, said Sahin Bayar, a manager at Evrensel.

The ruling said the local court in Ankara, which will now have to review the case, should drop the lawsuit, Bayar said.

Appeals court officials were not immediately available for comment.

There was no immediate comment from Erdogan who is also suing the owner of satirical magazine Penguen for publishing drawings of the premier's head attached to the bodies of animals. The premier has also successfully sued cartoonist Musa Kart of the daily Cumhuriyet, who drew him as a cat entangled in a ball of wool. An appeals court decision is pending.

Pamuk, Turkey's best-known novelist, is being tried on charges that he insulted "Turkishness," for having told a Swiss newspaper in February that "30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it." That trial was halted by the judge the day it began, Dec. 16, and awaits a Justice Ministry ruling on whether it can continue.

On Thursday, prosecutors decided not to file separate charges against Pamuk for allegedly insulting the military for reportedly telling a German newspaper in October that the military threatened and prevented democratization in Turkey.

Prosecutors are, however, considering charges against a Dutch member of the European Parliament, Joost Lagendijk, for insulting Turkey's armed forces, a move that could further strain relations with the EU.

Hurriyet newspaper reported Friday that similar charges were brought against nine bar owners in Istanbul for allegedly insulting the police force after they shut down their premises for a day and hung up a banner protesting what they said was police harassment of bars and similar establishments in the area.

On Wednesday, the government acknowledged that charges brought against Pamuk had tarnished the country's image and said laws that limit freedom of expression may be changed.

It was the first time the government had indicated it might amend laws making it a crime to insult Turkey and its institutions. The country has been under intense pressure from the EU to drop other charges against Pamuk.

The government, however, said it would rather wait and see the outcome of charges brought against Pamuk and dozens of other people before moving to amend them.

Erdogan had earlier said, in defense of the laws, that "freedoms are not limitless."

The premier, who was once imprisoned for reciting a poem deemed to be an attack on the state, has come under intense criticism for taking legal action against cartoonists.