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Justice on trial
Maureen Freely on the threat to freedom of expression faced by Turkey's writers
Saturday September 23, 2006
The Guardian
At 9.15, all is quiet outside the Istanbul courthouse. By half past, film crews have begun to congregate around the entrance. Now two buses veer around the corner, disgorging 60 or so riot police. As they take position, so, too, do the demonstrators. Their banners bear the name of the author/academic/journalist who is to be tried this morning. Whatever the alleged offence - insulting Turkishness, alienating the public from military service, failing to protect the memory of Atatürk - they will brand this defendant as a traitor, an imperialist and a spy."
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