http://www.gulan-media.com/h627/g37.pdf
There has been no progress in Turkey in amending Article 301. It limits freedom of expression as it makes it criminal “to insult Turkishness”. Instead the development has gone to the opposite way. The eight March an Istanbul court banned Internet page “YouTube” claiming that it insults the memory of Kemal Atatürk. Turk Telecom cut immediately access from Turkey to this web page.
“YouTube” is a web page where people can put anonymously videos and music about any topic they want. Turkish court banned “YouTube” because there was one program about Atatürk what it did not like. The decision caused abroad lots of protests. “YouTube” page removed the Atatürk piece which had caused the problem. Then the court in Istanbul removed the ban. Now “YouTube” is open again in Turkey.
What do we learn from this episode? Turkey does not want to increase freedom of mass media. Instead it tries to bring Turkish censorship also to other countries. With poor results, “YouTube” was closed only two days.
Internet has provided a forum for discussion across boarders and censorships. It builds global civil society as it gives people a channel to get in touch with each others in a cheap and effective way. “YouTube” is just one example but it is a good example. It has about 3800 videos and other programs where Saddam Hussein is mentioned. Information about Kemal Atatürk is available in one thousand programs in “YouTube“. There are also nine videos about Jalal Talabani but nothing about Masoud Barzani.
Internet gives opportunity for anonymous discussion. For example American soldiers explain in many chat pages their frustration for being in Iraq. Turkish soldiers criticize their government for the battles in Southeast Turkey. In neither of these cases the soldiers could tell their experiences and opinions with their real names. This is very valuable. Such inside information is not available in the mass media in America or Turkey. In both countries governments want to give an image that the situation is under their control. Chat pages are discussion groups in internet where people can write their opinions without telling their real names.
For the Kurdish movement in Turkey Internet has been for years a channel to distribute and receive information despite the state’s policy of censorship. The state aims now to censor internet the same way as the traditional mass media. This happens also in other countries which oppress freedom of expression, like China. Microsoft and other companies in electronic media have double moral. First they sell to internet users software. Then they sell to authoritarian governments equipment to hinder the use of programs what they have sold to their other clients.
Turkey has managed to cut access from Turkey to many Kurdish web pages, like Kurdishinfo.com, Kurdmedia.com and Netkurd.com. This is of course frustrating to Kurds but I am sure they will found new ways to distribute information. Many examples show that people in the Kurdish movement in every part of Kurdistan are very creative. In Turkey Kurdish activists are always one step ahead the state censorship system in creating new methods. When the state finds out a way to close one activity something new is already going on.
http://www.youtube.com
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