CEDH · PRESS;CHAMBERJUDGMENTS;ENG — 20 octobre 2009

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .sA678F94A { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right; font-size:11pt } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s598389F8 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; font-size:11pt } .s51D316E0 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:center; font-size:11pt } .s15B74CEF { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; font-size:11pt } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s26725EEE { font-family:Arial; font-size:5.33pt; font-weight:bold; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .sFE10DC93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s1F6AC3E7 { font-family:Arial; font-size:11pt; font-style:italic } .s4BAE41EE { font-family:Arial; font-size:11pt } .s777B7D40 { font-family:Arial; font-size:11pt; text-decoration:underline; color:#008080 } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .s2E932ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:11pt } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .s99A63BFE { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left; font-size:11pt } .sBACB3E60 { font-family:Arial; font-size:11pt; text-decoration:underline; color:#800080 } .sC7EAD8B { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:underline } .s9FE28126 { margin-top:0pt; margin-right:42.5pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left; font-size:11pt } .s1ED9948 { margin-top:0pt; margin-right:42.5pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:11pt } .sF6A12959 { width:33%; height:1px; text-align:left } .s2EB42ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt } .s653E6C45 { font-family:Arial; font-size:6.67pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .sB853CD26 { font-family:Arial; font-size:8pt }   781 20.10.2009   Press release issued by the Registrar Chamber judgment [1] Ürper and Others v. Turkey (application nos. 14526/07, 14747/07, 15022/07, 15737/07, 36137/07, 47245/07, 50371/07, 50372/07 and54637/07 )   SUSPENSION OF TURKISH NEWSPAPERS UNJUSTIFIED   Violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression and information) of the European Convention on Human Rights     Under Article 41 (just satisfaction) of the Convention, the Court awarded the applicants sums ranging between 5,000   euros   (EUR) and EUR   40,000 in respect of pecuniary damage, EUR   1,800 to each applicant in respect of non-pecuniary damage and EUR   5,000 to the applicants jointly for costs and expenses less EUR   1,000 grated by the Council of Europe by way of legal aid. (The judgment is available only in English.)   Principal facts   At the material time the applicants, who are 26   Turkish nationals, were the owners, executive directors, editors-in-chief, news directors and journalists of four daily newspapers published in Turkey: Ülkede Özgür Gündem , Gündem , Güncel and Gerçek Demokrasi . Between November 2006 and October 2007, the publication of all four newspapers was regularly suspended by the Istanbul assize court for periods ranging from 15   days to a month. The publications were considered propaganda in favour of a terrorist organisation, the PKK/KONGRA-GEL (Kurdistan Workers’ Party, an illegal organisation), as well as the approval of crimes committed by that organisation and its members, whilst at the same disclosing the identity of officials with anti-terrorist duties thus making them targets for terrorist attacks. Neither the applicants nor their lawyers participated in the court’s proceedings, and their written objections to the suspension orders were dismissed.   In addition, some of the applicants were criminally prosecuted for the same offences as those attributed to the newspapers. Thus, Ali   Gürbüz, who was the owner of Ülkede Özgür Gündem , was sentenced to pay approximately EUR   217,000. Özlem Aktan, who was the executive director of Ülkede Özgür Gündem and Gündem , was indicted twice and Lütfi Ürper, who was the owner of Gündem and Güncel , three times. Hüseyin   Bektaş, the owner and executive director of Gerçek Demokrasi , was similarly prosecuted.   According to the information in the case file, all these prosecutions are still pending at first instance, except for that against Ali   Gürbüz, which is apparently still pending before the Court of Cassation.   Complaints, procedure and composition of the Court   Relying in particular on Article 10, the applicants complained of the suspension of the publication and dissemination of their newspapers and of their inability to take part in the proceedings before the Istanbul Assize court.   The nine applications were lodged with the European Court of Human Rights in 2007.   Judgment was given by a Chamber of seven judges, composed as follows:   Françoise Tulkens (Belgium), President , Ireneu Cabral Barreto (Portugal), Vladimiro Zagrebelsky (Italy), Dragoljub Popović (Serbia), Nona Tsotsoria (Georgia), Işıl Karakaş (Turkey), Kristina Pardalos (San Marino), judges , and Sally Dollé , Section Registrar ,   Decision of the Court   The Court recalled that news is a perishable commodity and to delay its publication, even for a short period, may well deprive it of all its value and interest. It then observed that the decisions to suspend the newspapers publications had been taken by the courts and found that that had been a valuable safeguard of the freedom of the press.   At the same time, the Court noted that the suspensions of the publications had not been imposed only on selected reports but on the future publications of entire newspapers whose content had been unknown at the time of the domestic courts’ decisions. The Court further found that the applicants’ guilt had been established in proceedings from which they had been excluded. The domestic court had decided to suspend the publications on the assumption that the applicants would commit the same kind of offences in the future. Consequently the suspension orders had had the preventive effect of dissuading the applicants from publishing similar articles or news reports in the future and had hindered their professional activities.   The Court held that less draconian measures could have been envisaged by the Turkish authorities, such as confiscation of particular issues of the newspapers or restrictions on the publication of specific articles. The Court held unanimously that by having suspended entire publications, however briefly, the authorities had restricted unjustifiably the essential role of the press as a public watch-dog in a democratic society, in violation of Article 10.     ***   This press release is a document produced by the Registry. It does not bind the Court. The judgments are available on its   website ( http://www.echr.coe.int ).   Press contacts Kristina Pencheva-Malinowski (tel : + 33 (0)3 88 41 35 70) or Stefano Piedimonte (tel : + 33 (0)3 90 21 42 04) Tracey Turner-Tretz (tel : + 33 (0)3 88 41 35 30) Céline Menu-Lange (tel : + 33 (0)3 90 21 58 77) Frédéric Dolt (tel : + 33 (0)3 90 21 53 39) Nina Salomon (tel: + 33 (0)3 90 21 49 79)   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. [1] Under Article 43 of the Convention, within three months from the date of a Chamber judgment, any party to the case may, in exceptional cases, request that the case be referred to the 17 ‑ member Grand Chamber of the Court. In that event, a panel of five judges considers whether the case raises a serious question affecting the interpretation or application of the Convention or its protocols, or a serious issue of general importance, in which case the Grand Chamber will deliver a final judgment. If no such question or issue arises, the panel will reject the request, at which point the judgment becomes final. Otherwise Chamber judgments become final on the expiry of the three-month period or earlier if the parties declare that they do not intend to make a request to refer.