When the relatives of suicide bombers lament that more Jews weren’t killed, are the reporters quoting them involved in incitement? Turkish authorities think so. After Al-Qaeda attacks on Istanbul synagogues in 2003, reporter Elif Korap interviewed one bomber’s family.
“We were more sorry than we were pleased about the attacks because Muslims died,” Nurullah Kuncak was quoted as saying. “If only Jews, not Muslims, had been killed, I would have been happy.”…
For his statement, Kuncak, then 17, was charged with inciting ethnic hatred. It was the first time anti-Semitism was the basis for such a case in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country where Jews generally have been welcome for five centuries.
But the reporter who interviewed Kuncak and wrote the article, Elif Korap of mainstream newspaper Milliyet, also was charged under the same law for quoting him. Both face trial in two months.
(Hat tip: Journalism.org)
