Charges against reporter of inciting racial hatred dismissed

Charges against reporter of inciting racial hatred dismissed

11/20/95

TURKEY– An American correspondent for Reuters news service was cleared in early November of charges that she incited racial hatred by writing an article that discussed the destruction of villages accompanying the Turkish army’s campaign against Kurdish rebels.

The correspondent, Aliza Marcus, was the first foreign journalist brought to trial for her writing. The article, which prosecutors said incited hatred between the Turkish and Kurdish people, was published in November 1994 in a pro-Kurdish newspaper.

Marcus testified in October that the article was based on information she gathered during a visit to Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey.

The court acquitted Marcus of the charges, citing “lack of evidence and intent.”