The following declaration from the Government of 4 January 2005 was part of the friendly settlement: At the material time the applicants, Halis Doğan, Cihan Çapan, Hasan Deniz, Varlık Özmenek, Ragıp Zarakolu and Zeynep Tosun worked for the Turkish daily newspaper Özgür Bakış.
The issue for the Court to determine was whether the interference with the applicants’ right to freedom of expression had been “necessary in a democratic society” within the meaning of Article 10 § 2.
Nor had there been any indication that the newspaper in question had been likely to impart ideas of violence and rejection of democracy, or had had a potentially damaging impact that warranted its prohibition.
The Court further observed that it had previously held that both the provisions conferring powers on the governor of the state of emergency region to prohibit the circulation and distribution of written material and the manner in which those rules were applied escaped all judicial scrutiny.
[2] Mrs Hünkar Demirel was the editor of the weekly newspaper Yedinci Gündem (Seventh Order of the Day) and Mr its owner.
Between November 2006 and October 2007, the publication of all four newspapers was regularly suspended by the Istanbul assize court for periods ranging from 15 days to a month.
Consequently the suspension orders had had the preventive effect of dissuading the applicants from publishing similar articles or news reports in the future and had hindered their professional activities.
The Court held that less draconian measures could have been envisaged by the Turkish authorities, such as confiscation of particular issues of the newspapers or restrictions on the publication of specific articles.