If the Erdo\u011fan government in Turkey had hoped to suppress free speech by banning Twitter and YouTube, they must have realized by now how futile it was. \u00a0The internet users in Turkey have managed to sidestep the ban and the number of Twitter users in the country has increased.\u00a0 What is more, the banning of Twitter and YouTube has drawn the world\u2019s attention on to the issue of media freedoms in Turkey.<\/p>\n
On Monday, 7 April, at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the representative for France called the ban in Turkey a violation of freedom of expression for users of the internet and asked for the view of the Committee of Ministers.<\/p>\n
The answer was clear. \u201cThe freedom of expression does not relate just to the print media, radio and television: it has to be afforded online as well, in the new media. Young people are the greatest consumers of the new media. The new social media of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube enable young people not just to exchange information but to get information and form their own picture of the world. Therefore, it is absolutely vital that Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the other new media sites should not be restricted or prohibited\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, 9 April, Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution stating that the effective enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression online is a right under the European Convention on Human Rights and public authorities have a duty to ensure that the Internet should be available to all.<\/p>\n
The violation of freedom of speech and intimidation against the media in Turkey were among the key subjects discussed \u00a0in London, too. On 7 April, BBC Global News and the Centre for Freedom of the Media at the University of Sheffield organised the BBC\u2019s Safety of Journalists Symposium.<\/p>\n
I was not there to hear it for myself but I asked one of the main organizers of the symposium, the International Director of CFOM William Horsley and the BBC Turkish producer Selin Girit about the meeting.\u00a0 Selin Girit , whose video report of Turkey was shown at the Symposium told me that Turkey was only one aspect of the meeting but \u00a0as a country considered to be part of the democratic world, yet with the greatest number of journalists in jail, it was an interesting case for an international audience.<\/p>\n
Milliyet columnist and the representative of IPI Turkey, Kadri Gursel told the meeting that the Gezi protests were significant as the first civil revolt for individual freedoms ever in Turkey, but since then a new wave of repression has forced the resignation or dismissal of hundreds of journalists and editors.<\/p>\n
The Symposium heard that the ideology of Turkey\u2019s justice system is the root cause of impunity. Totalitarian tendencies have been particularly strong for the past 2 years; the press have been oppressed by intimidation, firings, wiretaps and censorship. \u00a0An independent neutral justice system is needed to end the culture of impunity.<\/p>\n
Can Yeginsu, a barrister from London argued that in all probability it was the Turkish governments\u2019 sobering experience of its recent abandonment of its defense in the December 2012 case at the Strasbourg court concerning the imposition of a ban on a website called \u2018google sites\u2019 which lies behind the Constitutional court\u2019s ruling and the government\u2019s back down over the recent Twitter ban. Turkey was then found in violation of Article 10 because of problems with the law and the requirement that website bans should be subject to appeals and a judicial review. \u00a0Yeginsu also saw grounds for hope in the recent changes made which led to the release of a number of journalists held in pre-trial detention.<\/p>\n
As Selin Girit pointed out, Turkey was only an item on the agenda, albeit an important one. The meeting concentrated on the safety of journalists, especially that of war correspondents and journalists working in countries where there are physical attacks and intimidation against the members of the media.<\/p>\n
William Horsley, one of the organizers of the symposium and the International Director of CFOM told me that the symposium held a lively and constructive debate about many promising strategies by media, NGOs and legal experts to stop targeted violence against journalists and the high rate of impunity. A range of responses and strategies are being actively considered as a result.<\/p>\n
In a keynote speech, expressing her personal views and not the official view of the International Criminal Court, the ICC\u2019s Vice President Judge Sanji Mmasenono said that it would make sense to formalize the importance of the role of journalists by enacting a criminal statute to establish that crimes against journalists should be investigated with special urgency. But she acknowledged that it would be very difficult to achieve the necessary support to change the Rome Statute (of the ICC) in order to make such a change.<\/p>\n
The Symposium welcomed the adoption of a UN General Assembly resolution on the safety of journalists last December. William Horsley pointed out that the resolution highlighted the vital importance of journalists\u2019 role in a democratic society by proclaiming 2 November as the International Day to end Impunity for Crimes against Journalists\u2026<\/p>\n
William Horsley said that the BBC Symposium turned into a landmark occasion when the participants, including the BBC\u2019s head of global news Peter Horrocks took part in a protest to mark 100 days since the detention of three Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt.<\/p>\n
A prepared statement supported by about 50 symposium \u00a0participants condemned the killing of 547 journalists worldwide since 2007, including the recent killing of an AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus in Afghanistan earlier\u00a0 this month. The journalists, including the Turkish participants covered their mouths during the minute\u2019s silence to symbolize the silencing of free speech in many countries, the result of oppression of press freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If the Erdo\u011fan government in Turkey had hoped to suppress free speech by banning Twitter and YouTube, they must have realized by now how futile it was. \u00a0The internet users in Turkey have managed to sidestep the ban and the number of Twitter users in the country has increased.\u00a0 What is more, the banning of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}