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Good Boy - by Michael Dickinson: The face is Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey

Michael Dickinson is due in court in Istanbul on Monday 8 October, under Article 125 of the Turkish penal code, for "insulting the dignity of the Prime Minister", after exhibiting a collage "Good Boy" (shown here).  Conviction can carry a jail sentence of up to two years.  I have written to Gordon Brown (letter below).  There is a protest petition which you can sign on http://www.mungbeing.com/petition.html . The collage is on display at A Gallery,  154 Merton Hall Road, Wimbledon, London SW19.  The gallery’s director, Fraser Kee Scott, could also be prosecuted if he visited Turkey under Article 301. The collage can be seen on display at http://www.stuckism.com/AGalleryJuly07/IndexShow.html .

 

LETTER SENT TO GORDON BROWN

 

29 September 2007

 

Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP

Prime Minister

10 Downing Street,

London,

SW1A 2AA

 

Dear Prime Minister

 

I would like to ask for your intervention in the case of British artist Michael Dickinson, who lives in Istanbul, where he is due in court on 8 October under Article 125 on a charge of  “insulting the dignity of the Prime Minister” after displaying a collage. Conviction can result in a jail sentence of up to two years.

 

I enclose a copy of this collage, Good Boy, which depicts the Turkish Prime Minister’s head on a dog’s body with a Stars and Stripes leash. This kind of satire is of course commonplace commentry in this country, and it is intolerable that a country applying for EU membership should censor freedom of political comment in this way.

 

A year ago, when he was arrested, Mr Dickinson was held for 10 days in a Turkish police station, in inhumane conditions. He reports that he could get virtually no sleep, with lights on twenty-four hours a day, thick cigarette smoke,  loud music, shouting from policemen, and screams from prisoners being abused in the next room.

 

Mr Dickinson’s case has already achieved international media coverage with coverage from UK national press including The Times and The Guardian.

 

I trust you will communicate your strongest condemnation of this prosecution to the Turkish government, and ask for this case to be abandoned immediately. I ask for  your assurance that you will oppose Turkish  European Union membership, until Turkey adopts the attitudes of the civilised world towards freedom of speech and human rights.

 

Michael Dickinson is the Istanbul representative of the Stuckism International art movement.

 

Yours sincerely

  

Charles Thomson

Co-founder, The Stuckists