ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey’s Parliament yesterday approved a package of amendments to a controversial new penal code, put on hold in March amid harsh criticism that it restricts press freedoms and contains technical flaws.

The code, which was first adopted in September amid much fanfare and praise, was a key condition that Ankara fulfilled to win a date for accession talks with the European Union at a summit in Brussels in December.

It overhauls Turkey’s 78-year-old penal code, borrowed from fascist Italy, and has won praise for introducing a more liberal criminal justice system, in particular increasing penalties against human rights abusers and torturers and improving the rights of women and children.

The package adopted yesterday contains improvements to a number of articles concerning the media, but press groups have denounced the changes as inadequate on the grounds that journalists may still end up in prison, even though jail sentences were purged from the press law in another reform last year.

The amendments notably scrap provisions that envisaged increased penalties for some offenses if they are committed via the media, such as slander, insult to the president and incitement to war.

The lawmakers also narrowed the scope of a controversial article envisaging up to 10 years in jail for those who accept benefits from foreigners in return for acting against “fundamental national interests.” A provision that would have increased the jail term to 15 years if the offender committed the crime by spreading propaganda via the media was removed from the code.

Other articles denounced by the media, however, remained unchanged. Most of them concern the protection of privacy and the secrecy of judicial proceedings until suspects are formally charged.

Complete with yesterday’s amendments, the new penal code is now scheduled to enter force on June 1, if it is approved by the president.

ANKARA (AFP) - Linking Turkey’s European Union membership bid to a referendum in France on the EU constitution this weekend is a “very ugly and wrong” policy, the Anatolia news agency quoted Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying yesterday.

“We see here a situation where Turkey is used in (domestic) politics. This is very ugly and wrong. The vote is not about Turkey,” Erdogan told Turkish journalists during a visit to Kazakhstan, Anatolia reported.

“We are very upset and amazed that Turkey is frequently being made an issue of debate,” he said.