The Turkish parliament on Tuesday approved a reform of the controversial Article 301 of the country’s penal code which sets limits on freedom of the speech by criminalising insults to “Turkishness”.

At present the article imposes up to three years in prison for such an insult but, under the reform, the country’s justice minister will have to give his consent on opening investigations on possible violations of this law. It also replaces “insulting Turkishness” with “insulting the Turkish nation” and reduces the maximum sentence to two years - which could be suspended, especially for first-time offenders.

The EU has repeatedly called on Turkey to amend or scrap this part of its penal code as a prerequisite for joining the bloc but critics argue that the changes are purely cosmetic and that freedom of speech will remain limited in Turkey.

“What needs to be done is to abolish [Article] 301 altogether,” Fatma Kurtulan, a pro-Kurdish party deputy, was quoted as saying by AP.

It would be “illusive” to believe this amendment designed to please the EU would change anything substantial with regards to free speech, Ms Kurtulan added.

Many Turkish intellectuals and writers have been tried under article 301, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was murdered last year.

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