Five Reporters Go On Trial for “Insulting State Judicial Organs”

After dropping charges against novelist Orhan Pamuk and a member of the European Parliament last month, Turkish prosecutors are now trying five journalists on charges of insulting the judicial process. The charges arise out of observations the reporters made concerning an academic conference about Turkey’s treatment of Armenians during World War I and a court’s ruling on whether it could go forward. Such trials continue to raise questions about whether the country’s freedom of speech protections rise to the levels expected for a member state of the European Union. Turkey is currently seeking EU membership. Read more here.