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".

Minister Throws Shoe at Protesting Journalist

MINISTER THROWS SHOE AT PROTESTING JOURNALIST

The Interior deputy minister in charge of the press, Üzeyir Akalın held his weekly censorship meeting this morning with domestic news agency journalists. In a formal statement, he announced that the ministry is issuing a written warning to the newspaper ‘Zaytung’ for publishing “misleading and crowd-inciting” news. Also present and sitting next to the minister was the chief imam of Üsküdar Big Brother Mosque looking very officious in a police-crisp ironed shirt.

The minister justified this action, stating that such fictitious news could easily agitate otherwise very sensible citizens’ minds, make old people desperate about their future plans and encourage young people to commit childish crimes.

It was also observed that he kept whispering in the ear of the imam wearing pitch-black glasses next to him.

“The news on two year old baby star football player upset and shattered the dreams of ambitious parents whose 18-years-old sons failed to even enter the amateur league after many years of chasing the ball. Besides this, news about the ambassador who was sent to a little known African country and forgotten there for 20 years caused a huge uproar in the upper levels of government. According to the news, the ambassador admitted that the Ottomans committed genocide against the Armenian population during the First World War. By making such a controversial claim, he hoped to be remembered and finally be summoned back to Ankara for interrogation. Because of this, the prime minister’s wife had to cancel her “Golden Coin Day” with other housewives of MUSIAD.” said the minister while ignoring the increasing noise in the room.

Time after time, the minister’s voice was suppressed by the protests of two journalists from the newspaper “Yearning for Censorless Press” but he kept talking: Sometimes, news articles must have a few discrepancies so that readers are able to differentiate truth from lies. If the article does not have these sorts of inconsistencies, gullible readers who believe in every written word, may at first, have “civilized discussions”. But later on, these discussions will turn into domestic violence.

The minister also added, “When fiction and reality are extremely tangential to each other, the writers in Zaytung must exaggerate excessively. They should exaggerate so much that the article will look very sludgy, wherever and however you grab it; it will stick to your hands. For example, the news article about newly discovered oil on the moon must be continued with a second fantasy of “the moon is sold to BP”. Then the innocent readers will not spend their precious time and money to start excursions to the moon. Besides, if they believe BP bought the moon, they will also think that there will be no more oil leakage in the oceans and they will live a life with more hope.”

After the minister finished his speech, a short Q&A period was given to the journalists to ask their inquiries from a pre-approved list of questions.

However, the real incident started at this point. With the permission of the minister, Ali Başeğmez, a journalist from the newspaper Zaytung, proceeded to defend the rights of his newspaper. Before he even began to talk, the microphone he was using was stolen by an unidentified person. Mr. Başeğmez was heard to have kept shouting “I have to defend the freedom of press even without a microphone!”. When the security guards warned him one last time, he continued to voice his protest, “This nonsense must stop. You cannot treat people as if they are your children! It is time to stop the censorship in this country!”

At that moment, although he barely had time to duck the shoe the minister had thrown at him, he was not quick enough to escape the policemen who entered the press room on their roaring motorbikes. They took Mr. Başeğmez into custody, stuffing a white cloth into his mouth and tying him up as if they were trussing a pig with hundreds of knots. Then they threw him outside, down the stairs. Upon returning to the press room, they returned the shoe to the minister, only to learn that the real owner of the shoe was the imam, not the minister. They respectfully handed over the shoe to the imam

A few hours after the incident, Mr. Başeğmez conducted a small press release in his hospital room. He said “The things that happened this morning should be published on the first pages of every newspaper but Zaytung so that the readers will be sure of what happened without thinking that this is a fabricated story.” With a cracked voice and trembling hands, he added, “I will be released from hospital this evening and after resting at home for two days, I will again start writing news which will fight against the injustice and corruption, even though they are lies. I will continue to make people laugh while encouraging them to think for the better and continue being a slap on the face of the cruel criminals.” He said “I won’t stop being a deadly ghost over the people who benefit from these evil actions.” before ending his press release.

News by Umut Yok from Yearning for Censorless Press

Ali Rıza Arıcan - November 15, 2010