The EU Parliament has on several occasions stated that access to the Internet is one of basic human rights. Now, Finland has become the first country to actually declare fast (broadband) Internet access a legal right.
This speech will be delivered in Strasbourg on Thursday, 08 October, 2009
Intervention Speech for the Cross-Border Internet: Consultation meeting organised by the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, 8-9 October 2009
By Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, Associate Professor in Law, Faculty of Law, Istanbul Bilgi University.
It is a great honour to be here today in Strasbourg at the Council of Europe, and to be very close to the European Court of Human Rights. For me, as an academic working in the field of human rights and new media, in particular with regards to legal and policy issues surrounding the Internet since the mid 1990s, the role of both the Council, and the European Court has been crucially important.
and more from cyberspace:
A live coverage from the inside and a post to be updated continously- updates just below the photo
The Meetings has an officially blog-style site for photos, videos and other informative stuff.
Information about the World Bank meetings and events
In the opening talk, Mr. Erdoğan also hinted at protests outside underlining the fact that global economic life is hard and protests are not totally unjustified. Protests in Taksim, very close to meeting center. I have now a post on protest roundup. And all other media roundup on meetings updated in yet another post.
The Google Wave is one step closer to breaking after the announcement that invitations would be sent to some 100,000 developers, business and university customers and first-time users to preview the service.
A ‘wave’, which is a browser-based tool that is ‘shared, live and in equal parts conversation and document’, has created a particular buzz amongst journalists who see the opportunities that combining email, instant messaging and real-time interaction, opens up. It could very well change the way journalists currently work.
After some disappointing and unnecessary remarks, a popular culture icon, Hülya Avşar was interviewed in Milliyet and this ended up with an investigation.
Challenge for Infamous Prosecutor: BIA Quotes Avşar Interview
Bakırköy Public Prosecutor Ali Çakır’s investigation against Hülya Avşar and Devrim Sevimay has nothing to do with “justice”. This abuse of public power under the pretense of the “Kurdish Initiative” is nothing else but mobbing against the two women. We are protesting.
In the mean time, a scandal might be developing:
“The family of a girl killed by a mortar shell fired from an unknown location overlooking the village of Şenlik in Diyarbakır province has asked how it can request an investigation into her death when there are no state authorities in the area…VIA
Diyarbakır Chief Prosecutor Durdu Kavak has said that two bomb experts are conducting an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Ceylan Önkol in the village of Şenlik in Diyarbakır province following her family’s allegations that there were no state authorities in the area to provide assistance. VIA
Well, Turkish political agenda is full of new openings and summer was not a vacation time. Alas, I was in a sort of vacation and thus missed blogging about these openings (and crises, of course).
Brief ideas on the Kurdish opening:
1) High officials in the Turkish army backs the gov’t move. Without that backing, I do not believe AKP would be courageos enough to declare the move.
2) In the last elections, AKP realized that there is no way it can win hearts of CHP voting masses in Western, and Southern parts of Anatolia. Plus, despite the dose of rising nationalism, AKP lost votes to nationalist MHP in Central Anatolian towns. On the other hand, in Kurdish lands, AKP has a real chance. This opening may win some extra votes. This opening might be a "revenge" against nationalist Turks.
3) Nationalist reactions stayed at a ridiculous level. MHP leader’s too angry rhetoric reaches to absurdity instead of substantive opposition. CHP is already in an absurd situation since it now rejects what it had proposed as solution to Kurdish crisis decades ago…
But of course, those opposing the opening, were quick to manipulate the funeral of killed Turkish soldiers… No surprise; hawks of both sides do not like an opening.
In the mean time, another opening comes with the Armenian side. And yet another comes with the EU as the wise men talk. Unfortunately, the gov’t scores miserably against the media. Even I am getting angry with gov’t moves against the Doğan Media Group. All about these can be found below…
by ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ
Check out Lorenz’s post to learn why:)
Ciner Group is back in business. Its ambitious newspaper, Habertürk, was released today for the first time. Editor in chief is Fatih Altaylı who is a long time professional journalist/columnist in mainstream media. High quality in print, but not much novelty in content. My first impression. I feel it will first challenge Sabah, which … Read more
I haven’t read it all yet but this guide seems to be a very good guide for beginners. In fact, I don’t have a similar guide around. Have a look.
A journalism roundup follows:
As a news junkie, I may live in the right country. At the moment, there are at least 6 TV channels that specialize in news, that they call themselves as news channels. After bought by Ciner Group, which is heading towards to rebuild its media conglomerate and possibly becoming the second biggest one again, Haberturk … Read more
Milliyet provides a list of Turkish NGOs that received foreign funding. "these fundings are questionable" the report says. Because American consulate funded a religious NGO and Soros funded TESEV, one of the most successful NGOs in research related issues. But they have supported so many other NGOs. For instance TEMA, an environmental NGO with some deep-state connections. Why does the news producer not highlight what TEMA gets?
This is a disgusting way of news making and unfortunately such a quality paper, Milliyet, is frequently trapped into that because of its particularly secularist/nationalistic agenda. If an NGO does not share your political agenda, then it betrays the country with the help of some hostile foreigns….
By the way here is the whole list in Turkish:
A collection of cartoons on shoe throwing, mostly from Turkish press..
Iraqi Journalist’s Shoes Make Turkish Media Happy – The Jamestown Foundation