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3 years jail for a collage of President Bush?

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~CharlesThomson:iconCharlesThomson: Jun 15, 2006, 8:34:12 AM
Erkan Kara will be charged in Turkey on 12 September with "insulting the dignity of the Prime Minister" for organising a a Peace Show fair in Istanbul, which displayed a collage showing the Turkish PM, Tayyip Erdogan, as a dog being given a rosette by President Bush.

British artist, Michael Dickinson, who made the collage, has submitted a letter to the court, admitting liability for the (unauthorised) display of the collage, and is now waiting to see if he will be prosecuted. The charge carries 1-3 years in jail.

The collage, "Best in Show", and further details are on [link].

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*SLOShooter:iconSLOShooter: Jun 15, 2006, 8:40:23 AM
Don't do drugs!

It's the law!

--
My religion is simple.
My religion is kindness.
- The Dalai Lama
~CharlesThomson:iconCharlesThomson: Jun 15, 2006, 10:04:46 AM
Drugs aren't involved. Freedom of expression, human rights and political hypocrisy are:

June 8 2005 White House press release:

President Bush: Turkey's democracy is an important example for the people in the broader Middle East, and I want to thank you for your leadership. Mr. Erdogan.

Prime Minister Erdogan: I can summarize the main titles of our discussion as freedom, democracy, rule of law, fight against terrorism, security and human rights.
~Japheree:iconJapheree: Jun 15, 2006, 11:10:05 AM
And this is why an EU membership for Turkey is not forthcoming, they have a pretty poor record on this kind of thing, although I'm suprised at the lack of freedom of expression demonstrated here. Is it the image that is specifically the basis of the charge or the rally. In some ways I could understand if it was the rally (although still worrying) but prosecution for an image is just not on. :(
*SLOShooter:iconSLOShooter: Jun 15, 2006, 11:16:38 AM
What I meant was, if you break the law, you get punished.

You can argue that you should be able to do X till your blue in the face, but if Turkey says it's against the law and you do it, and you get caught, than you get punished.

--
My religion is simple.
My religion is kindness.
- The Dalai Lama
=shirosynth:iconshirosynth: Jun 15, 2006, 11:51:08 AM
Omg turkey did something against the freedom of speech *shock and awe*

Why is this so surprising?

--
In a great big way, I am really small.
~empchang:iconempchang: Jun 15, 2006, 12:06:44 PM
true... but it doesn't make it less ridiculous.

--
I was counting
the good things about this city
~empchang:iconempchang: Jun 15, 2006, 12:09:23 PM
I don't think the censorship is the shocking part... it's just the fact that it's an absurd punishment in the first place.

--
I was counting
the good things about this city
~duckage:iconduckage: Jun 15, 2006, 12:19:38 PM
ya know, i think it was probably more the "making the pm into a dog" part of the collage then bush. or you can continue to be an idiot and attempt link this to bush's doing.
=shirosynth:iconshirosynth: Jun 15, 2006, 1:02:54 PM
Its absurd to us, but a law to them.

--
In a great big way, I am really small.

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