Excerpt:
A Greek appellate court is set to revise a ruling by a local court in 2010 that imposed steep fines on two major newspapers of the Turkish minority in Western Thrace next week as press freedom supporters call on the court to overturn the sentences.
The case concerns the Gündem and Millet newspapers, which were ordered to pay 150,000 euros and 120,000 euros, respectively, to a local teacher who sued them in 2010. The dailies have said that the fine is too high for a minority paper. In a statement released on Monday, Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), agreed that the fines are excessive and said it hopes the court will revise its decision.
The case concerns a case filed against the two dailies by Greek teacher Hara Nikopoulou, who worked between 2005 and 2010 in a Turkish minority primary school in the village of Büyük Derbent (Megalo Derio). Nikopoulou allegedly asked the children to draw pictures of God. Both weeklies published a story about the incident, reporting that several of the children were Muslim and refused to comply with the teacher's request and complained to their parents as Islam prohibits depictions of God.