Turkey To Ease Free Speech Code To Appease E.U.

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's government will ask parliament to change the penal code to ease curbs on freedom of speech, as the nation seeks European Union membership.

The assembly will consider revising article 301 of the penal code, which has been criticized by the European Union, government spokesman Cemil Cicek told reporters at a news conference in Ankara yesterday after a meeting of the Cabinet.

The European Union has called on Turkey to change article 301 under which hundreds of writers and intellectuals, including Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, have been tried for "insulting Turkishness."

The European Union says it reserves the right to halt membership talks with Turkey if it fails to meet the bloc's democratic standards.