A Turkish writer was acquitted on Tuesday of a charge of “insulting” the nation’s revered founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, but attempts to ease the country’s draconian laws curbing free speech appear to be failing.

Ipek Calislar is one of dozens of writers, including the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, prosecuted in recent months at the insistence of nationalists enraged by what they perceive as attacks on Turkey’s founding principles instigated by liberal reforms aimed at getting the country into the European Union.