A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood
in an open market is afraid of its people. – John F. Kennedy
Middle East & North Africa
Turkey
 |
| Freedom House Score: 54 (Partly Free) | [Freedom House Methodology] |
| {Lower is Better, Score Ranges from 0 to 100} |
| Freedom on the Net Score: 45 (Partly Free) | [Freedom House Methodology] |
| {Lower is Better, Score Ranges from 0 to 100} |
Internet and mobile-telephone use in Turkey has grown significantly in recent years, though access remains a challenge in some parts of the country, particularly the southeast. The government had a hands-off approach to regulation of the internet until 2001, but it has since taken considerable legal steps to limit access to certain information, including some political content. According to various estimates, there were over 5,000 blocked websites as of July 2010, spurring street demonstrations against internet censorship.1A related and significant threat to online freedom has been the repeated blocking of certain applications, particularly file-sharing sites like YouTube, Last.fm, and Metacafe. Over the last two years, users of these sites have filed cases with the European Court of Human Rights, after unsuccessfully appealing the ban in local courts. The YouTube block was lifted in November 2010 only after disputed videos were removed or made unavailable within the country. Despite the restrictive legal environment, the Turkish blogosphere is surprisingly vibrant and diverse. Bloggers have critiqued even sensitive government policies and sought to raise public awareness about censorship and surveillance practices, yielding at least one parliamentary inquiry into the latter.
Read more on Freedom House's site...
| RSF Score: 49.25 | [RSF Methodology] |
| {Lower is Better, Score Ranges from 0 to ~120} |
Reporters Without Borders Description:
The nationalist and hard-line secular model inherited from the era of Kemal [Ataturk, founder of the republic and first president] has been challenged by the emergence of other models within society. The aspirations of the Armenian and Kurdish minorities have been recognised thus clashing with a concept of Turkish national identity against which their demands amount to crimes.
| Committee to Protect Journalists Description: | [What is the Committee to Protect Journalists?] |
Top Developments
• Authorities use anti-terror, defamation, security laws to prosecute journalists.
• EU criticizes press record, citing prosecutions, insufficient legal guarantees.
Key Statistic
0: Convictions obtained in the 2007 slaying of editor Hrant Dink.
Authorities paraded journalists into court on anti-terror, criminal defamation, and state security charges as they tried to suppress critical news and commentary on issues involving national identity, the Kurdish minority, and an alleged anti-government conspiracy. The European Court of Human Rights found that Turkish authorities bore culpability in the 2007 slaying of editor Hrant Dink, even as the government struggled to bring anyone to justice in the murder.
Visit CPJ’s Site for Recent Developments in this Country
| IFEX News: | [What is IFEX?] |
Printer-friendly version