‘Democracy on the way’

ANKARA

A senior Cabinet minister said the government was working on legislation to expand the freedom of thought as part of a “democracy package.”

“Our current work is on shortening the period of prosecution. And the expansion of the freedom of thought that does not contain violence through analyzing current Penal Code and the anti-terror law,” Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay said yesterday before a meeting on the fight against terror at the Foreign Ministry in the Fourth Ambassadors’ Conference.

The statement came at a moment when the government faced serious criticism over detaining journalists and long imprisonment without trial. The government will likely move forward on related legislature in early 2012.