The European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission, has just published two new opinions in which it again expresses its concerns at developments taking place in Turkey. One is on the criminal peace judgeship mechanism and the other on the freedom of the media in the face of the decree-laws issued as part of the state of emergency declared in the wake of failed coup d’État on 15 July of last year.
These two texts follow hard on the heels of the opinion published on Monday on changes to the Turkish constitution that are to be put to the people in a referendum on 16 April. The Venice Commission warns here of “a dangerous step backwards for democracy” and of the risk of slipping into “an authoritarian presidential system”.
The opinion on the “duties, competences and functioning of the criminal peace judgeships” is equally disquieting. These “super judgeships”, put in place in 2014 as part of the planned legal action against the Hizmet movement, have too wide a range of powers, according to Venice Commission experts. The Commission also expresses concern at the “system of closed, horizontal appeals”. Appeals against decisions of peace judges can be heard only by other peace judges and any decisions that are upheld become definitive. The opinion calls for a “vertical system” that would allow appeals to be heard in either criminal courts of first instance or possibly courts of appeal.
With regard to the current state of the freedom of the media in Turkey, the Venice Commission acknowledges that extraordinary measures were legitimate following the attempted coup but says that measures such as the mass liquidation of media outlets by means of emergency decree-laws, with no individual case-by-case decisions and without any possibility of timely judicial scrutiny are unacceptable in terms of international human rights law and are extremely dangerous. The increase in criminal proceedings brought against journalists and the arrest of journalists without relevant or sufficient reason risks weakening democracy rather than restoring it, the opinion adds.
The Venice Commission calls on the Turkish authorities, therefore, to supplement decree-law no 685 with a provision stipulating that natural and legal persons affected by the emergency measures be informed of the factual basis of these measures so that they may state their case before the investigation. Journalists may not be prosecuted for “affiliation” to a terrorist organisation solely on the basis of their writing, it is also stated, and, if they are, provisional detention cannot be justified simply by what they have published. This measure must remain exceptional and be based on the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)