Unay v. Turkey (5290/02)

Date	20081021
Article	10
Decision	violation

Violation of Article 10

Unay v. Turkey (no. 5290/02)

The applicant, Mehmet Zeynettin Unay, is Turkish national who was born in 1956 and lives in Izmir (Turkey).

Mr Unay was prosecuted for making propaganda against the integrity of the State on account of a speech he had given in August 1998, as the Deputy Secretary General of the People’s Democracy Party (Halkın Demokrasi Partisi - HADEP) on the occasion of a party conference held just before a general election. In his speech he defended his party’s policies, deplored the continuation of armed conflict in south-eastern Turkey and criticised government policy on the Kurdish question. In March 2001 the Izmir National Security Court, applying an amnesty law, suspended the applicant’s trial and placed him on probation for five years.

Relying on Articles 10 (freedom of expression) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination), the applicant complained of an infringement of his right to freedom of expression.

The Court observed that it was true that certain particularly harsh passages in the speech painted a negative picture of Turkish State policy on the Kurdish question, and thus gave the applicant’s words a hostile connotation. However, the applicant had been speaking as a politician, had not incited recourse to violence, armed resistance or insurrection, and his words did not constitute hate speech. In the Court’s opinion that was the essential point to be taken into consideration. Consequently, the Court held that the interference with the applicant’s freedom of expression had not been “necessary in a democratic society”, contrary to Article 10. It further held that it was not necessary to examine separately the complaint under Article 14 and awarded Mr Unay EUR 1,500 for non-pecuniary damage and EUR 1,000 for costs and expenses. (The judgment is available only in French.)