NEW TURKISH INTERNET REGULATIONS SIGNAL FURTHER RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH
NEW TURKISH INTERNET REGULATIONS SIGNAL FURTHER RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Friday, November 16, 2007
Amid fading hopes of EU membership, there are increasing signs that the Turkish authorities are tightening restrictions on freedom of speech.
A new set of regulations for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) published in the Turkish Official Gazette on November 1, 2007, makes it compulsory for all commercial ISPs to take measures to prevent access to “illegal content” and use government-approved filters to block users from visiting undesirable websites. In addition, all commercial ISPs are now obliged to record details of all the websites visited by their subscribers and store the data for a period of at least one year.
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But the new requirements have received little coverage in the mainstream Turkish media, with the result that few Turks are aware that they are now effectively under surveillance each time they access the Internet.
Turkish ISPs were already obliged to prevent access to a number of websites specifically outlawed by a ruling of a Turkish court. Almost all of the websites already banned are associated with either the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), such as the website of the Firat news agency, which is closely affiliated with the organization, or extremist leftist groups. Significantly, all of the banned websites are associated with views that oppose official Turkish ideology rather than, for example, explicitly incite violence. Hard-line Turkish nationalist websites, including those that call for the murder of liberal intellectuals such as the novelist Orhan Pamuk, have not been outlawed.
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In March 2007 the Turkish courts temporarily blocked all access to the You Tube website to prevent Turks watching a clip posted by a Greek nationalist that claimed, without any convincing evidence, that the republic’s late founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was homosexual. On November 14, a youth in the southeast city of Diyarbakir was arrested on charges of separatist propaganda after posting a video clip on You Tube showing local Kurds celebrating the Kurdish New Year of Newroz. Other recent cases include the launching of a judicial investigation against seven teachers in the western province of Edirne after some of the entries in a student essay competition allegedly insulted the Ottoman sultans (Anadolu Ajans, November 10). On November 9, a judicial investigation was initiated against a 17 year-old girl who, while doodling in a school textbook, drew a clown’s hat on a picture of Ataturk (Radikal, November 15).
These latest restrictions certainly are not in keeping with the openness required by the European Union.
Comments
As a Turk it is your duty to study the Rothchilds. They own the media, the banks and the governments of this world.
Study them and then post your knowledge to the rest of the world.
Posted by: Concerned Turk | November 18, 2007 06:10 AM
The Rothschilds don't support the Jamestown Foundation. Most of the money comes from Richard Mellon Scaife and the Earhart foundation. They're (former) rich Americans, with no ties to the Rothschilds that I know of.
Posted by: Nanne | November 18, 2007 07:20 PM