The Orhan Pamuk trial for defamation will be no more. According to various reports from Turkey, the Justice minister, Cemil Cicek, decided not to move forward with the trial -- and avoided what would have been a serious international controversy. But much as various watchdogs are happy about Pamuk, they worry about other writers in the same position:

"In two weeks time there are going to be eight new trials opening and our concern is that, because Orhan is no longer part of this group, that there will be less international pressure," said Maureen Freely, Pamuk's English translator. .

"In fact there should be more international pressure, because there's a real chance that we can convince the government that it should drop these laws altogether and turn Turkey into a democracy along European lines."

And if Turkey wants to be a member of the European Union, they have to figure out how to make some sort of democracy work...