Germany: Attempt to ban pro-Kurdish newspaper fails
01 September 2005
On 5 September, interior minister Otto Schily banned two Muslim organisations and the well-known newspaper Özgür Politika, the latter allegedly being "close" to the Kurdish nationalist party, the PKK. The same day, police raided 60 sites in eight different regional states. The paper distributes its 10,000 copies Europe-wide from its base in Germany. The ban came only two days after a mass rally in the Cologne Rhein Energie stadium at which speakers demanded the release of PKK leader Abdullah Öçalan. Investigations have also been initiated against another press agency and music distribution company allegedly close to the PKK. The banned Muslim organisations Yatim Kinderhilfe and Islamische Wohlfahrtsorganisation collect chartable donations and are accused of channelling the donations to the Palestinian Hamas organisation.
The newspaper ban was met with strong criticism for curtailing press freedom. Schily said that although he ranked the principle of freedom of press violated by the decision as "significant":
in the present case it had to be subordinated to security interests of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The German Journalists' Union Deutsche Journalisten Union (DJU) called the ban of the paper's publishing house E.Xani Presse und Verlags-GmbH "completely excessive" and the Hessian DJU secretary Manfred Moos pointed out that the fact that the paper documented PKK positions, did not mean it was "part of the command structure". He said police actions against newspapers not only threatened to undermine the protection of confidence and therefore informants' trust in journalists but also violated the constitutionally guaranteed press freedom.
The paper largely reports on the attacks by the Turkish military and the far-right against Kurds in Turkey as well as reporting on Kurdish protests. This latest ban illustrates that the EU's move towards criminalising "'promotion of terrorism" is being used to curtail freedom of speech rather than effectively fighting terrorism.
This recent attempt, however, failed as the Federal Administrative court suspended the implementation of the Internal Minister's decision in an accelerated appeal procedure initiated by the paper. Although the main proceedings are still to come, it is expected the court will overrule the ministerial decision. Cemal Ucar, a partner in the newspaper's publishing house, replied to the minister's allegations:
We value committed reporting on the events in Kurdistan. This concerns military but also cultural and political developments. This constitutes regular journalism that is of interest to our readers. There is nothing state-threatening about it, even if some people don't like what we write.
Despite the ban's suspension, Ucar reports on the consequences for journalists and the paper:
The interior ministry and the Federal Administrative Authority are now discussing the return of our inventory and our confiscated assets...However, it is not easy to continue straightaway because all our employees are out of work now, all computers, the archive, background documents and the library have been confiscated. It will take time to set it all up again and re-organise, therefore we don't know when we will be able to start publishing again."
Özgür Politika can, however, also be read on-line under http://www.kurdishinfo.com; Süddeutsche Zeitung 6.9.05; taz 6.9.05; junge Welt 21.10.05.