Lessons from Turkey: anti-terrorism legislation and the protection of free speech.

Abstract

Explores the extent to which the disclosure and other offences under the Terrorism Act 2000 could restrict effective journalistic reporting, drawing on European Court of Human Rights rulings on Turkish cases involving the right to freedom of expression in a context of political violence. Considers the scope of the ss.12, 19 and 35B offences and the implications of the Turkish cases on the protection afforded by the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 Art.10 to freedom of expression per se and to the conditions necessary for that expression. Notes the European Court's emphasis on the issues of proportionality and the need for prosecutions in a democratic society, and its interpretation of the boundary between incitement and the merely offensive, disturbing or shocking.