An International Conference on "Freedom of Expression and its Limits: Penal Law and Freedom of Expression in Turkey and EU Countries" was conducted by Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law and Friedrich-Ebert Foundation Turkey on 8 June 2007.

After the inaugural speeches by Prof. Turgut Tarhanlı (Dean of Faculty of Law, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey) and Dr. Roland Schmidt (General Secretary of Friedrich-Ebert Foundation, Germany), Fikret Ilkiz (Attorney, member of Istanbul Bar Association, Turkey), Prof. Dr. Friedrich-Christian Schröder (Faculty of Law, University of Regensburg, Germany), Dr. Cristina Pavarani (Faculty of Law, University of Parma, Italy), Prof. Roger Errera (Visiting Professor, Central European University, Budapest; former senior member of the Conseil d'Etat, France), Prof. Joseph Jaconelli (Faculty of Law, University of Manchester, UK), Dr. Juan Garcés (Attorney, member of Madrid Bar Association, Spain), Sara Whyatt (International Pen, Director of the Writers in Prison Committee) and Prof. Turgut Tarhanlı (Dean of Faculty of Law, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey) gave speeches on freedom of expression and its limits in Turkey as well as in European countries. 

Information about the lecturers 

Prof. Roger Errera
Former senior member of the Conseil d'Etat, France's High Administrative Tribunal and presently visiting professor at the Central European University in Budapest. Former member of the UN Human Rights Committee; regular visitor in central and eastern European countries as a consultant and an expert for the European Commission and the Council of Europe on legal and judicial reforms; author of a number of essays and articles on freedom of the press, right to privacy, hate-speech and group-libel, judicial review, European law, refugee law, religious freedom, secularism and judicial accountability. 

Dr. Juan Garces
Attorney, member of Madrid Bar Association. Degree in Law at University of Madrid 1967; Ph.D. in political science and economics at University of Madrid 1966; professor and researcher at different universities in Spain, Chile, Belgium, Columbia and USA (1966 - 1990); social development expert to UNESCO (1970-1973);permanent consultant to UNESCO. Published numerous books and articles about Chili and the Allende-experience, human rights and crimes against humanity. International awards because of his human rights works and his efforts to draw the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet before the judge in Spain: Alternative Nobel Award, Right Livelihood Foundation, Stockholm (1999), Letelier-Moffit- Award, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington D.C. (1999), Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite, France (2001). 

Prof. Joseph Jaconelli
Professor at Manchester University, Faculty of Law. Visiting Professor at University of Rome (1993) and at University of North Carolina (1996). Author of the books Enacting a Bill of Rights: The Legal Problems (1980); Open Justice: A Critique of the Public Trial (2002), and of numerous articles in the reviews Cambridge Law Journal, European Human Rights Law Review, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. In July 2006, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Law at the University of Cambridge (for published work). 

Fikret İlkiz
Attorney; member of Istanbul Bar Association. A prominent legal consultant in freedom of expression, media law and press law cases. 

Dr. Cristina Pavarani
Professor in criminal law and comparative criminal law at the University of Parma, Faculty of Law; researcher at the University of Florence, Department of Comparative Criminal Law. Law Degree at the University of Parma (1999); visiting researcher at Cambridge University (2000); Ph.D. in the Faculty of Law, Parma (2004). Consultant at the United Nations Secretariat, Department of Legal Affairs (OLA) Codification Division and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2003-2004). Attorney, member of the Parma Bar since 2002. 

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Friedrich-Christian Schröder
Professor at Regensburg University, Faculty of Law. Chair of criminal law, criminal proceeding law and Eastern Law at the same university until 2004. Study of Law and East Europe Geography in Bonn, Berlin and Munich (1959); Ph.D. (1964) and postdoctoral lecture qualification in law (1970). Director of Eastern Law Institute in Munich; deputy chairman of the German National Committee of the International Association for Criminal Law; vice chairman of the board of the Eastern Europe Institute Munich; Coeditor of the Annual Book for Eastern Law as well as the reviews Law in East and West, Eastern Europe Law and Economy and Law in East Europe. 

Prof. Turgut Tarhanlı
Professor of Public International Law and Human Rights Law at Istanbul Bilgi University, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Director of the Human Rights Law Research Center at the same university; member of the International Council of the Swedish NGO Foundation for Human Rights. Law degree at Istanbul University in 1979; from 1981 to 1999 lecturer at the Faculty of Law of Istanbul University; honoured by UNHCR in 2002 for his contributions in protecting refugee rights. His recently published books are Neither the Law Nor the Morality: A Hell in the Earth, Inhumane Governing: Human Rights in Turkey, and Co-editor of the book Majoritiy and Minority Policies in Turkey: Discussions on Citizenship in the Process of the EU. 

Sara Whyatt 
International Pen, Director of the Writers in Prison Committee.