Freedom of Press, still to be desired in the Caucasus

By Jennifer Gnana

"People in this country in the last years whether paranoid or not, have been afraid to talk even on their phones," said newly elected Turkish opposition member of parliament Professor Binnaz Toprak in a recent interview with Al Jazeera.
He could easily have been talking about its neighbourhood foe Armenia.
Press freedom is a rare find in the Caucasus region and for all the much touted democratic credentials of Turkey and Armenia, neither are seminal upholders of freedom of expression.
While Turkey has a draconian law against "insulting Turkishness", Armenia on the other hand has recently decriminalised libel, which in effect has allowed politicians to file defamation suits against newspapers that criticise them.
In Turkey, anything said against the Turkish nation, ethnicity or government institutions, is punishable by imprisonment of up to three years.
This law gained worldwide notoriety when Turkey jailed its prominent Nobel-prize winning novelist Orhan Pamuk for denouncing the Turkish government's killing of Kurdish people and the genocide of Armenians.
Others, if not imprisoned have been killed.
Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist editor of the bi-lingual newspaper Agos who was once tried under the same law was assassinated in 2007.
The killing which led to huge international outcry, also brought to light the often difficult conditions journalists in the region work under.
Turkey has been ranked 138th in the Press Freedom report released by Freedom House while Armenia has been labelled "partially free".
While talking about why journalists in Turkey are being arrested under an anti-terrorism law, Turkey's chief EU negotiator Egemen Bagis said that one can't question the judicial system and that journalists have to merely put up with it.
Citing his own example- he was once tried for defamation in Turkey, he made a sweeping remark, "This is how things are" and that being a young democracy, Turkey has to be excused.
In Armenia meanwhile, a news website had a defamation suit filed on it for the comments posted online by its readers.
Newspapers such as Zhamanak and Hraparak face hefty penalties from an ex-president and his family who have even threatened to seize the papers' assets.
Journalists in Armenia say that it is difficult to carry on their work when they have to face defamation suits constantly.
The Constitutional Court is reviewing the modification to the defamation law so that it becomes difficult for powerful persons to act with impunity.
Whether it is through laws to prevent denigration of national identity or gagging through defamation laws, press freedom in the Caucasus is still a long shot away.