Talking Turkey: bloggers ban themselves in protest over banned blogs

by Davey Winder

Monday, 18 August 2008

Page 2 of 3 This hugely controversial law makes it illegal to insult the Turkish nation, Turkish ethnicity or Turkish government institutions. I guess you could say that the Turkish authorities do not take criticism that well. Recent reforms to Article 301, which took effect on April 30th this year and were brought about largely as part of the negotiating process for Turkey to get membership of the European Union, appear to have made little real difference. Indeed, it seems that some wording was altered so that 'Turkishness' was replaced by 'Turkish nation' when talking about insults. The maximum prison term for the guilty masses was reduced by a year as well. Perhaps the most important amendment would be that which requires the permission of the Turkish Justice Minister in order for a case to be filed under Article 301. Although some insist that it remains particularly easy for websites to be banned. The problem being that another law was passed in 2007, the snappily entitled Law 5651, which was aimed squarely at regulating web sites. By which it really means censoring those which do not toe the party line, as it were. Take Article 8 of that law, which the World Socialist Web Site explains can have content blocked if it violates a law passed in 1951 that deals with crimes against Ataturk. The WSWS also maintains that there are 900 courts which are able to ban sites based on nothing more than complaints from individuals. Why is a ban under Law 5651 so problematical, especially for sites which are operated by people outside of Turkey itself? Find out on page 3... CONTINUES << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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