Protesting the Blogspot Ban in Turkey

Finally they did this as well. A Turkish court ordered Turk Telecom to block access to all blogspot sites. This means, hundreds of thousands of blog users in Turkey will be silenced and thrown away from their virtual homes by today. Should we feel happy for that the reason behind the ban is not political or ideological but it is driven by copy-right issues of a TV channel.

Lig TV bought the rights of broadcasting the Turkish First League Football Matches and only those who pay for this TV channel can watch the matches in Turkey. However, some blog users are continuously broadcasting the matches on their blogs and the TV company used its right in order not to lose more money (It seems they paid hundreds of million dollars for the airing rights). In one way, this makes sense as we live in a free-market economy and football became extremely commercial with expensive players, high endorsements, lively commercials. Three questions should be asked here:

1. Shouldn't government let its people have free access to the broadcast of all sports events? When I was kid, all matches were broadcasted by state TV channel and no one paid a "kuruş" to watch them on TV. Selling the rights of broadcasting to private companies and making it inaccessible for the majority of football fans unavoidably will bring pirate initiators to the market. TV companies already make a lot of money through the commercials that they show during the matches so why would they still need to charge? People pay for watching the match and also watching the commercials. Most do not feel offended with this issue but I think it is a double offensive when you have to pay for a commercial of a product that you will never need in your life.

2. If there are some blogs violating the law, then why don't they close only those blogs? I am sure 99.9% of blog users do not have anything to do with broadcasting illegal things. People simply express themselves through their writings, pictures, music etc. "Burning the entire blanket for a flea" can only be seen in dictator regimes where individual differences are ignored and people are treated as "enemy of state". Turkey had banned youtube before and the ban has been lifted recently. Now it is time for blogspot! What is next? The entire world is discussing the concepts like "internet freedom", "living borderless" etc but our courts are busy with cutting people's right to have access to the information.

3. I wonder how easy to order blocking a website in Turkey! If I don't like a website, can I complain about it and block it with a court order? If this is so simple, then there is a political side of the story as well. As long as there is no untruthful/fallacious/malicious lie or abuses about a person/company/institution, there should not be a ground for silencing a web site. Of course, government must protect its citizens from violence, from sexual abuses, from racist comments but while doing this harming others should be avoided so that the remaining part of the society can function properly. In recent years, we have seen ban on Richard Dawkin's website as it spreads "atheism" or simply "positivism". This ban was brought by the head of a Turkish ultra-conservative group, Adnan Oktar who writes books on "creationism" and runs campaigns against "teaching evolution in schools". He was also responsible of blocking many other sites including the "Atheist forum" of the newspaper Vatan.

In fact, what I have witnessed during the AKP era is the opposite of what should be done at the first place. Government seems easing the requirements for owning firearms recently. This means more tax revenue will come to the state but at the same time more people will be killed in street fights following otherwise-would-be simple verbal arguments, more women and children will be shot by angry/alcoholic husbands/fathers etc.

Also the politicians/journalists who make racist/sexist/misogynistic comments on certain ethnic people living in Turkey are not prosecuted at all. I would like Turkish courts ban these people to speak at all, put a zip in their mouths for a few years and open the zip only when they need to eat. Domestic violence seems getting worse and everyday we read the news about the women who are mistreated, beaten to death and sometimes horribly murdered. Now all these things are happening in a country and the government is doing nothing but silencing hundreds of thousands of blog users. It is wrong, it is completely wrong...

Having written all this, unfortunately people in Turkey cannot read it without tricking the proxy settings of their internet connection. I am sure all those computer gigs in Turkey will find the easiest way very soon and the ban will be useless after all. However, the ban still should be removed as soon as possible to make people feel that their freedom is not blocked or basically no freedom can be blocked for long time, long enough to comfort those in power and give them a good sleep. At one side of the world, dictators are falling one by one and at the other side which is not included in the maps of unrest -should we be happy with this?-, the dictator-minded rulers grin at their own people, treat them as "a stupid flock of sheep".