A Turkish journalist’s censored plea for press freedom
Kerem Oktem introduces our translation of a column by Hasan Cemal, which his newspaper, Milliyet, refused to print.
Did the Strasbourg court allow too much for local taboos?
At the European Court of Human Rights, the case of I.A. against Turkey in 2005 acted as a controversial precedent for limiting Article 10’s definition of freedom of expression in the name of religion, explains Michele Finck.
The Future of Free Speech
Aryeh Neier, human rights lawyer and president emeritus of the Open Society Foundations speaks about the future of free speech.
Combatting hate speech in Turkish media
The Hrant Dink Foundation has run the Media Watch on Hate Speech project since 2009 to counter racist and discriminatory discourse in Turkish press. Project coordinators Melisa Akan and Nuran Agan explain the initiative.
Elif Shafak on our common humanity
Acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak discusses the limits to free speech, the cosmopolitanism of her novels and the art of coexistence.
Improving media ethics in Turkey
A grassroots organisation set up by journalists attempts to create positive change in Turkish media, writes Yonca Poyraz Doğan, a correspondent at Today's Zaman.
The framing of Orhan Pamuk
Writer Maureen Freely talks about the sustained hate campaign in Turkey against the author and Nobel prize winner Orhan Pamuk.
Free speech in Turkey & the world – part two
Historian Halil Berktay discusses the denial by the Turkish state that the mass murders of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in 1915 constituted a genocide.
Free speech in Turkey & the world – part one
In the first past of this debate, research fellow Kerem Öktem argues that an individual's understanding of free speech is shaped by their personal history and geography.
Raising a “religious youth” in Turkey
A new law allowing parents to send their children to Islamic schools at an earlier age has polarized Turkish society, write İrem Kök and Funda Üstek.
Hasan Cemal: Freedom of expression in Turkey
From communism to Kurdish separatism, the Turkish state has used a series of pretexts to deny freedom of expression to its citizens, says journalist Hasan Cemal.
Turkey’s new reform bill
The Turkish government has proposed a bill that will suspend all media offences committed before December 2011. But will the draft law actually improve press freedom, asks Funda Ustek.
YouTube in Turkey
YouTube was banned for three years in Turkey on the grounds that certain videos were insulting to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the modern republic's founder, or to "Turkishness", write Funda Ustek and Irem Kok.
The private life of a national hero
A documentary depicting the Turkish Republic’s founder, Kemal Atatürk, as a "drunken debaucher" was seen as an attack on "Turkishness", write Irem Kok and Funda Ustek.
How Turkish taboos perpetuate immaturity
Professor Ayşe Kadıoğlu of Sabancı University speaks of her experience growing up in Turkey where taboos, many imposed by law, have trapped citizens "in a state of immaturity".
Kurdish in Turkey, Turkish in Bulgaria
Kerem Öktem compares how the governments of Bulgaria and Turkey treat the language rights of their most important minorities.
Turkish journalists: Şık and Şener
In March 2011, two prominent investigative journalists were arrested in Turkey because of their alleged ties to a terrorist organisation. Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener faced 15 years' imprisonment if they were convicted, write Funda Ustek and Irem Kok.
