The Elegant Variation

HECK, WE INSULTED TURKISHNESS LAST WEEK ...

Elif Shafak discusses the charges against her of "insulting Turkishness" with the Guardian.

Shafak joins a roster of more than 60 writers and journalists to be charged under Article 301 of the Turkish criminal code since its introduction last year. University professors, journalists and novelists such as Perihan Magden, Orhan Pamuk and now Shafak have been charged under legislation drawn so broadly as to criminalise a wide range of critical opinions. Writers not only face the prospect of a three-year jail term, but the prosecutions also lay them open to a campaign of intimidation and harassment waged by rightwing agitators.

"The protests are maybe even more unnerving than the actual trial," Shafak told the Guardian today from her home in Istanbul. "Although their number is very limited they are very aggressive, very provocative." She describes crowds of protesters slapping and jostling defendants both inside and outside the courtroom, shouting and throwing coins and pens.

We propose that Turkey's EU admission be blocked until Article 301 is stricken from the books.

IT WAS GENOCIDE. COME AND GET US

OK, Turkey needs to just calm the fuck down. 

The charges against Elif Shafak, filed under the Turkish Criminal Code, stem from her recently released book "The Bastard of Istanbul," in which a character refers to the killing of Armenians in World War I as genocide, according to The New Anatolian, an English-language newspaper in Turkey.

FALLACI SUED

Orianna Fallaci has gone on trial in Italy on charges of defaming Islam.

Muslim activist Adel Smith filed a lawsuit against Fallaci, charging that some passages in her book, "The Strength of Reason," were offensive to Islam. Smith's lawyer cited a phrase from the book that refers to Islam as "a pool ... that never purifies."

Fallaci told The Associated Press last year that "I have expressed my opinion through the written word through my books, that is all."

Fallaci lives in New York and is not expected to attend.

IRANIAN ARREST

Ramin Jahanbegloo, a Canadian-Iranian intellectual, has been arrested in Tehran.

The arrest has caused concern about freedom of speech as Iran comes under increasing pressure from abroad.

Mr Jahanbegloo is a well-known Canadian-Iranian professor with doctorates from the Sorbonne and Harvard University.

He has written and edited more than a dozen books on philosophy and political science.

FOR EVERY WRITER RELEASED ...

Kamal Karim, a Kurdish writer jailed for criticizing a Kurdish political leader, has been freed.

Kamal Karim was sentenced to a year-and-a-half in jail a week ago, a reduction on his original term of 30 years, in a case that raised questions about human rights and freedom of the press in the Kurdish zone in the north.

"The prime minister of Kurdistan has granted ... an amnesty today," a Kurdish cabinet source told Reuters.

Karim, an Iraqi Kurd, was originally sentenced in December in a snap, hour-long trial to three decades in jail for an article on a Web site accusing Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani of corruption and abuse of power.

Things are not going nearly so well for jailed Tunisian writer Muhamed Abbou:

Abbou was so weak that he could not stand up during a brief visit with family members on Thursday, his wife, Samia, said in an interview with CPJ. "He told us that he was seriously ill and he had been denied proper medical care," she said. "He said he is forced to share a cell with four criminal thugs who he believes have been instructed by the prison administration to harass him day and night."

WELL, IT SAVES HIM THE TUXEDO RENTAL

Turkmen writer Rahim Esenov has been given an honor by PEN American Center that he'll be unable to collect.

However, Esenov, who is 79, has been unable to leave the country since his arrested in February 2004 for allegedly smuggling 800 copies of his book into Turkmenistan. He was officially charged with "inciting social, national, and religious hatred." All copies of his book in Turkmenistan were burned.

Esenov was later released but his passport was confiscated. He signed a document pledging not the leave the country.

KURDISH WRITER SENTENCED

A Kurdish writer has been sentenced to prison in Iraq for defaming Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani.

Karim was convicted by a state security court in Arbil after an hour-long trial on December 19, on charges of defaming Barzani and public institutions. He was arrested in October.

Karim had published articles on a Kurdish website accusing Barzani and his Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of corruption and abuse of power.

European president Austria has called for Karim's release.

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

As part of its City of Literature push, Edinburgh would like to become a "city of refuge" for persecuted writers.

The Scottish capital could offer sanctuary to those unable to work and live safely in their home country.

If senior councillors give the proposal their backing on Tuesday, the Lord Provost Lesley Hinds will launch a consultation on the move.

Edinburgh would then look to bid for official status, aiming to be accepted in time for this year's book festival.

The idea has been brought forward by the Scottish branch of PEN, a worldwide association of writers committed to protecting freedom of expression.

JOURNALISTS IN THE PHILIPPINES UNDER SIEGE

Word recently reached us from Bambina Olivares Wise about her mother's plight as an editor in the Philippines.  We share her story, and some additional background here.  Although the state of emergency has been lifted, it remains an uncogenial place for journalists critical of the regime.

My mother is not a novelist or a literary figure per se, but she is one of the most fearless journalists in the Philippines, with a reputation for integrity and feistiness. Our family owns The Daily Tribune, a daily broadsheet published in Manila that is widely regarded as critical of the present regime under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. I don't know how familiar you are with Philippine politics - a circus most of the time - but Friday's declaration of a state of emergency following an alleged coup plot to overthrow the (illegitimate) government was swiftly followed by a raid on The Daily Tribune. The government is unapologetic about the raid and ominously threatens further action. And all this on the 20th anniversary of the people power revolution that ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, whose Martial Law rule was marked by the curtailment of press freedom.

You can find out more from the the following websites: www.inq7.net, www.rsf.com (Reporters Sans Frontieres) and www.mlq3.com.

Additionally, the New York-based Committee to Project Journalists has asked President Arroyo “to reverse the steps” her government has taken to control the media and to provide an environment where journalists can work freely, without fear. "Democracy in the Philippines has been threatened in the years since the 1986 revolution, but no administration has used the restrictive means your government has taken," the CPJ said.

Official statements from both organizations after the jump.

THEY CALL THAT "PROGRESS"

The BBC remembers the 1974 treason charges against Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

The Soviet authorities have formally charged Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn with treason one day after expelling him from the country.

The writer, 55, was deported to West Germany yesterday and stripped of his Russian citizenship.

Thirty years later, America has taken the lead in persecuting journalists and writers.  What goes around, comes around, eh?