Content related to Turkey Should governments butt out of history? Eric Heinze examines how states limit speech in order to control public awareness about the past. The archipelago of press restriction in Turkey Emre Caliskan and Simon Waldman explain how Turkey became the world’s largest imprisoner of journalists. Truth cannot be expelled: free speech under attack in Turkey Timothy Garton Ash, in a lecture at Boğaziçi University, entitled Free Speech Under Attack, explains why the media is essential for a functioning deliberative democracy. He argues that populism and the projection of dominant voices through the media is a significant threat to free speech in Turkey and around the globe. An insistent effort by the Hrant Dink Foundation against hate speech in Turkey Pınar Ensari and Funda Tekin explain the work of the Hrant Dink Foundation in countering hate speech in Turkey. Dunja Mijatović: What are the biggest threats to free speech in Europe? Dunja Mijatović, OSCE Freedom of the Media Representative, in conversation with Timothy Garton Ash Hyperreality beats free speech in Turkey Kerem Öktem describes the dramatic deterioration of Turkey’s media landscape after the attempted coup of July 2016. A Turkish newspaper is shut down, condolences accepted Ezgi Basaran cries out at the forced end of Radikal, the Turkish newspaper she used to edit. The rise and fall of free speech under Turkey’s Islamists Looking at the long sweep of the AKP’s rule, Kerem Öktem shows how the window of free speech in Turkey has closed. Ian McEwan on free speech and religion The celebrated English novelist on Islam’s ‘totalitarian moment’ and why freedom of expression is not religion’s enemy but its protector. Fear, farce and tragedy: how Turkey reacted to the Charlie Hebdo murders Kerem Oktem describes the narrowing room for satire and free expression in Islamist-ruled Turkey. Why Turkey’s mainstream media preferred penguins to protest Kerem Oktem, in Istanbul, reflects on the pernicious influence of the government and business interests on Turkish broadcasters. 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. Has the Strasbourg court allowed 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. Combatting hate speech in the 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. How Turkey’s imagination was censored during the Olympics During the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, a Turkish National TV presenter censored John Lennon’s song Imagine. FSD team member Funda Ustek discusses how Turkey is trying to eliminate its citizens’ ability to imagine a world without religion. 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. Maureen Freely: Why is there a sustained hate campaign against the Nobel Laureate 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.
Should governments butt out of history? Eric Heinze examines how states limit speech in order to control public awareness about the past.
The archipelago of press restriction in Turkey Emre Caliskan and Simon Waldman explain how Turkey became the world’s largest imprisoner of journalists.
Truth cannot be expelled: free speech under attack in Turkey Timothy Garton Ash, in a lecture at Boğaziçi University, entitled Free Speech Under Attack, explains why the media is essential for a functioning deliberative democracy. He argues that populism and the projection of dominant voices through the media is a significant threat to free speech in Turkey and around the globe.
An insistent effort by the Hrant Dink Foundation against hate speech in Turkey Pınar Ensari and Funda Tekin explain the work of the Hrant Dink Foundation in countering hate speech in Turkey.
Dunja Mijatović: What are the biggest threats to free speech in Europe? Dunja Mijatović, OSCE Freedom of the Media Representative, in conversation with Timothy Garton Ash
Hyperreality beats free speech in Turkey Kerem Öktem describes the dramatic deterioration of Turkey’s media landscape after the attempted coup of July 2016.
A Turkish newspaper is shut down, condolences accepted Ezgi Basaran cries out at the forced end of Radikal, the Turkish newspaper she used to edit.
The rise and fall of free speech under Turkey’s Islamists Looking at the long sweep of the AKP’s rule, Kerem Öktem shows how the window of free speech in Turkey has closed.
Ian McEwan on free speech and religion The celebrated English novelist on Islam’s ‘totalitarian moment’ and why freedom of expression is not religion’s enemy but its protector.
Fear, farce and tragedy: how Turkey reacted to the Charlie Hebdo murders Kerem Oktem describes the narrowing room for satire and free expression in Islamist-ruled Turkey.
Why Turkey’s mainstream media preferred penguins to protest Kerem Oktem, in Istanbul, reflects on the pernicious influence of the government and business interests on Turkish broadcasters.
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.
Has the Strasbourg court allowed 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.
Combatting hate speech in the 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.
How Turkey’s imagination was censored during the Olympics During the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, a Turkish National TV presenter censored John Lennon’s song Imagine. FSD team member Funda Ustek discusses how Turkey is trying to eliminate its citizens’ ability to imagine a world without religion.
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.
Maureen Freely: Why is there a sustained hate campaign against the Nobel Laureate 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.