Free Expression in Turkey

Human Rights Watch and partner NGOs scored a victory for free expression in Turkey with the February 13 acquittal of Turkish publisher Fatih Tas. Tas had been charged with dispensing "separatist propaganda" for publishing a book by Noam Chomsky that described human rights violations in southeastern Turkey, where a large population of Kurds lives. The essay in question, called "Prospects for Peace," includes a comment about the repression of the Kurds which Chomsky said "was largely drawn, with quite a few direct quotes, from HRW reports."