Strasbourg rules in favour of a queer magazine
Ten years after the seizure, the queer magazine Kaos GL wins its case in Strasbourg.
On 22 November 2016, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Turkey. The case went back ten years: in July 2006, the authorities in Ankara had seized the entire print run of an issue of Kaos GL, the country's oldest queer magazine.
Kaos GL was first published in 1994. The small magazine grew into a movement, and in 2005 the group became the first LGBT organisation in Turkey to be officially registered as an association. The offending issue, number 28, was devoted to the relationship between pornography and homosexuality, with articles, interviews and some explicit images. For the authorities, that was obscenity. Editor-in-chief Umut Güner was charged but acquitted in 2007. The magazines nevertheless remained locked away. Only in 2012, after the proceedings had finally ended, were they returned. More than five years had passed.
The judges in Strasbourg ruled unanimously: the seizure violated freedom of expression under Article 10 of the Convention on Human Rights. Protecting morals was a legitimate aim. But the authorities had not even considered whether milder measures would have sufficed, such as a ban on sales to minors or packaging with a warning. Locking away an entire print run for years was disproportionate.
For the queer community, this was an important signal. It came, however, at a time when the climate in the country was already turning. Since 2015, the authorities have banned Pride in Istanbul, and police operations with tear gas have been part of the picture ever since. Kaos GL still publishes today and documents this development. The ruling shows that a small editorial team from Ankara can win its case before a European court, even if politicians at home are little impressed by it.