5 Yorumsuz – 5 Without Comment – 2015-03-23

1 – Insults to Erdoğan weekly roundup – a now regular feature of the Turkish news-scape is the count of how many journalists, cartoonists, students, activists or others are currently being tried, fined, or jailed for various forms of insult to President Erdoğan. Examples this week include …

Today’s Zaman regarding a student in Izmir:

A 21-year-old university student is facing the prospect of up to four-and-a-half years in prison for posts on Twitter that are alleged to have insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when he was prime minister.

Hürriyet Daily News and Diken on cartoonists, with a link to the “problem” image at the latter:

Two Turkish cartoonists face up to two years in jail on charges of “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, over a satirical piece on free speech in which they allegedly included a hidden offensive gesture. Bahadır Baruter and Özer Aydoğan, cartoonists for the popular satirical weekly Penguen, have been sued by Erdoğan for the Aug. 21, 2014 cover of the magazine. In the picture, Erdoğan is seen asking whether officials at the new presidential palace in Ankara have prepared “any journalists to slaughter,” referring to ritual sacrifice in Islam.

Hürriyet Daily News on the sentencing of a journalist in Adana and on the investigation of others in the same city:

A journalist in southern Turkey has been sentenced to a five-month suspended prison sentence, while the houses of two more journalists from the same city have been raided by police, all for “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on their social media accounts. Mine Bekiroğlu, a 28-year-old local journalist from Adana, was sentenced to a five-month prison sentence by Adana 6th Criminal Court of First Instance on March 19, Doğan News Agency reported.

2 – Today’s Zaman reports on the YSK (Supreme election board) banning an AK-Party Nevruz/Nerwoz ad:

Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK) has banned a television ad prepared by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) for the Nevruz festival because of the use of the Turkish flag and religious symbols, a news report said on Sunday. The three-minute ad was released last week to mark the Nevruz festival — a now officially recognized holiday widely celebrated in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern region of Turkey — to send a message of unity amid efforts as part of a settlement process to resolve the decades-old Kurdish issue through talks.

The AK-Party is clearly aware that such use of symbols is illegal, as they had an ad banned for similar reasons almost exactly one year ago, in the run-up to the March 2014 municipal elections. More about that ad and its zombie-like imagery can be found at endtimescafe.

3 – Ileri Haber and T24 report that he Beyoğlu Zabita raided a screening of the 13th annual Filmmor Women’s Film Festival taking place in the Rampa Kafe, saying that the cafe didn’t have a license for screening. Festival coordinator Melek Özman noted that the festival had received all the necessary permissions from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The filmgoers resisted the police for about an hour, until organizers told the police they had called officials in the municipality and parliament, at which point the police finally relented.

4 – Hürriyet Daily News and Today’s Zaman report on a bill approved by parliament that increases governmental oversight of the internet. From Hürriyet Daily News:

Parliament has approved a key article of the contentious omnibus bill which gives power to the prime minister and other ministers to shut down websites within four hours, just six months after a similar bill was overturned by the Constitutional Court. Parliament approved 13 more articles of the omnibus bill late March 12. A key article stipulates that ministers will have the power to order the removal or blocking of an online publication for “defending the right to live, securing property, ensuring national security and public order, preventing crime or protecting public health.” The Telecommunications Directorate (TIB) could enforce the request of the ministry, as a blanket ban of the website if deemed necessary, within a maximum of four hours.

The same paper also prints an interview with scholar Aslı Tunç on the importance of social media in Turkey and the government’s strong efforts to curtail it.

5 – Censorship round-up – Hürriyet Daily News reports on members of the US Senate pressuring Secretary of State John Kerry to act on press freedom in Turkey; Today’s Zaman details a new report by Transparency International that says 86 percent of journalists in Turkey believe self-censorship is common; and columnist Melis Alphan notes the long history of censorship in cinema and art related to Kurdish identity.

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5 Yorumsuz – 5 Without Comment – 2015-03-16

1 – Hürriyet Daily News and Today’s Zaman

Turkey’s media watchdog will be given the authority to fine TV channels that violate election broadcast limitations, according to a new omnibus bill presented to parliament, de-authorizing the High Election Board (YSK). The media watchdog, the Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTÜK), will take over the authority to issue warnings and fines to broadcasters for election violations, instead of the YSK, which currently holds the authority, if the bill is passed by parliament. Opposition parties have reacted against the bill, claiming that it is a move to protect pro-government broadcasters.

2 – Today’s Zaman and others – follow further developments in the Kabataş Gezi Park story, as pro-Government paper Sabah publishes a mock image alongside claims (also in English) that the lack of evidence in the case is actually evidence, and that all of the alleged crimes took place in a 52-second gap in security footage. Satirical cartoon magazine Gırgır includes a cover showing Erdoğan directing a shoot of the events. From Today’s Zaman:

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the pro-government media have revived discredited claims that a woman wearing a headscarf was attacked by a group of Gezi Park protesters, as government mouthpiece the Sabah daily published an illustration on Wednesday linked to debunked claims, even though police have confirmed that the video footage showing the incident does not exist. There were claims that a physical assault was sustained by the woman, whose family has close ties to Erdoğan, during the nationwide anti-government Gezi Park protests in 2013 in front of Istanbul’s Kabataş docks, where nearly 100 men allegedly harassed the woman and her baby. These allegations gave rise to the withdrawal of support by certain segments of society from the Gezi protests.

3 – BGN News and Today’s Zaman report on a piece in Taraf related to a major shift in government surveillance – from BGN:

A new Big Brother-esque surveillance center in President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s TRY 1.4 billion (USD 540 million) presidential palace has been completed. The center will allow the president to monitor all 77 million citizens at all times, with its 143 different screens providing access to all MOBESE (law enforcement CCTV) cameras in all 81 municipalities, all images taken by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) as well as all security camera footage. Able to directly receive information from the systems belonging to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), the National Intelligence Agency (MIT), the police and the gendarmerie, the center will also be able to project a target’s personal details and information instantaneously.

4 – Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish police on March 13 detained three people accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other top officials on Twitter, after raiding their homes. The raids were the latest in a string of actions against critics of Erdoğan on Twitter, as activists express growing alarm over the limits on freedom of expression in Turkey.

5 – Istanbul Film Festival, sponsored by the The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), released its program for this year’s festival, to run from April 4th to 19th.

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