Turkish court acquits British artist over portraying PM as US poodle
Robert Tait in Istanbul
The Guardian, Friday September 26 2008
Article history
A British artist walked free yesterday after being cleared of insulting Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, by portraying him as a dog in a case seen as a test of Turkey's tolerance of free speech.
A Turkish court acquitted Michael Dickinson of criminal charges despite citing "some insulting elements" in his depiction of Erdogan as a dog attached to a leash in the colours of the US flag. But the court ruled that the artwork was "within the limits of criticism".
Dickinson, 58, who has lived in Turkey for 20 years, was charged with "insulting the prime minister's dignity" in September and could have faced up to two years in jail if convicted. He was arrested after unfurling the picture at a court hearing of an art exhibition organiser, who had been charged with insulting behaviour for displaying another of Dickinson's works. The earlier picture depicted Erdogan as a dog being presented with a rosette by George Bush. His acquittal may ease some pressure on Turkey from the EU, which called on Ankara to improve its record on human rights and freedom of speech issues as a condition of entry.
Dickinson, a member of the Stuckist art movement, voiced relief at his acquittal but warned that other artists still faced legal pressure for expressing dissenting views. "I am lucky to be acquitted. There are still artists in Turkey facing prosecution and being sentenced for their opinions," he told AP.
The verdict ended a saga which has included four court hearings and seen Dickinson's fellow Stuckists calling first on Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown to intervene.
Charges were pressed against Dickinson after he displayed his poster of Erdogan on a leash, which he called Good Boy, at the trial of Erkan Kara, organiser of an exhibition staged by the Global Peace and Justice Coalition, a campaign opposed to the US-led occupation of Iraq. Kara had been prosecuted after the exhibition showed Dickinson's earlier poster.
Dickinson was forced to leave Turkey after his residence permit was cancelled but was charged when he returned on a tourist visa. After his arrest he spent 10 days in police detention during which an attempted escape was foiled when a pursuing police officer fired a gun at him.
Dickinson, who was born in Durham, is not the first artist to have been prosecuted for allegedly insulting Erdogan. In 2005 the prime minister successfully sued a cartoonist who portrayed him as a cat tangled up in a ball of wool. Dickinson had earlier gained notoriety when his website was blanked by the host server for displaying a poster which showed Bush with a swastika on his right buttock and a cruise missile coming out of his rear.
So it's OK to portray him as a dog .... but not a cat!
