Erdogan attacks the Internet* (from Haaretz, February 11, 2014)

Protesters took to the streets in Istanbul last Saturday evening to voice their concerns over the new Internet law passed by the Turkish parliament just two days earlier. As is de rigeur in Turkey, the police dealt harshly with the protesters, firing teargas and water cannon, with skirmishes continuing well into the night. The government’s violent suppression of the protesters actually serves as an important metaphor for the way the Turkish government is using extreme means to silence any type of dissent, and as it does so, it is chiseling away at the state’s own democratic institutions.

The controversial Internet law has already been condemned both inside and outside of Turkey, including statements made by the European Union and the United States. The new law, once instituted, will allow the head of a government agency, the Telecommunications Directorate, to block websites at its own discretion, bypassing the currently needed court order. Furthermore, it will require Internet providers to store users’ browser information for two years and to forfeit it upon request, which is a clear invasion of user privacy. In essence, it resembles an extreme case of legalized state surveillance - an out-in-the-open Turkish NSA.

Despite the fact that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that the new law does not “…impose any censorship at all,” and will make surfing the net, “safer and freer,” the fears of Turkish Internet users are clearly not unfounded. According to a recent report by the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey, Turkey ranks only second after China in blocking Internet sites. With around 40,000 sitescurrently blocked, the Committee to Protect Journalists has used the term “internet authoritarianism,” to describe the current state of affairs.

In other words, while we are speaking about the new Internet law, the public debate should really be on how to bring more freedom to an already censored internet that blocks such topics as Darwinism, Kurdish and political left news sites, and even gay-dating sites.

For many, the new Internet law is perceived as another attempt by Erdogan to usurp greater power, as he continues his battle against the Gulen movement, followers of the influential Turkish religious preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is in self-imposed exile in the United States. For Erdogan, the Gulen movement is a “parallel state,” which attempted to overthrow his government by masterminding last December’s graft investigation, uncovering massive corruption at the highest level of his government. Having a greater control over the Internet could be used against the Gulenists, the “illegal gang within the state,” but also against groups similar to the Gezi protesters, who were also accused of plotting a coup against the state.

Fears for the future of the Internet are also strengthened by the fact that not only does Turkey hold the world record for jailing journalists, but the Turkish government has stepped up its struggle against dissent in the press. Last Friday, the journalist Mahir Zeynalov was deported; an Azerbaijani national, who is married to a Turkish citizen, Zeynalov wrote for Todays Zaman, a newspaper affiliated with the Gulen movement. While his deportation is certainly related to his sharp criticism of the government, the official charge against him was “posting tweets against high-level state officials.” Erdogan recently opened a criminal court caseagainst Zeynalov alleging defamatory tweets.

If this was not enough, during the last few days numerous secret tapes have emerged revealing phone conversations between Erdogan and Fatih Sarac, an executive at Haberturk, a private television news agency. So far, four sets of recordings have been released, and in two of them the Turkish prime minister directly interferes in the content of news stories; the first conversation took place during the opening days of the Gezi protests, when Erdogan called Sarac from Morocco to demand the removal of a critical comment by an opposition leader in their newsfeed; in another, Erdogan complains to Sarac about a story criticizing state healthcare; three staff members were allegedly fired for submitting the story.

While the legal admissibility of these tapes is in question, there is no doubt they serve as yet as another troubling sign about the state of Turkey’s democracy. In most democratic systems, such blatant manipulation of the press would shake a government to its core, most likely leading to its leader’s resignation.

Ironically, it is in the emergence of the taped conversations, and other wire-taps of Prime Minister Erdogan and his family members, that we can find an analogy with the recent Internet law. There is no doubt that Erdogan is certainly right to be angered that he and his family have been secretly recorded. How much more so should ordinary Turkish users of the Internet be angered at being subjected to surveillance without recourse.

For now, the Turkish public is looking towards Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gul, hoping that he will veto the new internet bill and send it back to the parliament for reconsideration, together with a strong message to Erdogan that a red line has been crossed. There is no doubt that if he does so, it will be a brave move on his behalf. However, this too could be too little, too late; since the graft-investigation came to light last December, Gul has done little to stop Erdogan from continuing to monopolize power. In this context, the Internet law seems just like another piece of the puzzle in a greater question concerning the future of the rule of law in Turkey and the preservation of its democratic institutions.

*This article appeared originally in Haaretz on Feb 11, 2014; I am placing the entire text here since due to the paywall sometimes the link is blocked

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.573728

Journalists, Students, and a Pianist: Turkish Freedoms put to Test

During the last few years, more and more Turkish and international organizations have been criticizing Turkey over how many journalists have recently been jailed. Last week, a report was issued by the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, and it is another reminder that the Turkish government needs to take measures to fix this injustice. Turkey now has more journalists jailed than any country in the world and it is a stain on its democracy.

The report, entitled Turkey’s PressFreedom Crisis, lashes out harsh accusations, claiming that “Turkish authorities are engaging in widespread criminal prosecution and jailing of journalists, and are applying other forms of severe pressure to promote self-censorship in the press,” and adds that they, “have mounted one of the world’s most widespread crackdowns on press freedom in recent history.” According to the report, as of August 2012, 76 journalists are being held, mostly for anti-state crimes (or similar), with three quarters of them in jail for extended periods of times (months and even years) without being officially charged. In addition “scores” of others are awaiting trial for other reasons, such as “degrading Turkishness” with “between 3000-5000 criminal cases pending.”  

Commenting on the amount of arrests, the report states that “the imprisonments constitute one of the largest crackdowns CPJ has documented in the 27 years it has been compiling records on journalists in prison,” and highlights that Turkey far surpasses other countries’ violations, such as Eritrea (with 28 held) and China (with 27 held).

Unfortunately, this story is not a new one. For the last two years, Turkish government officials, including PM Erdogan himself, have been asked to answer claims that their government is excessively jailing journalists, but to no avail; usually, when questioned, the officials brush it off as if this does not constitute a problem.  However, the problem is very real and not only for journalists, but also for students.

In Turkish jails, according to Hurriyet Daily News, there is a staggering 2,824 students being held, with many charged with “being a member of a terrorist organization.” In the past, many students have been arrested just for demonstrating and holding banners; later to find themselves in jail for over a year awaiting trial. The Turkish government's claim that these students support terrorist activity is inflated and as a result damages Turkey's genuine need to protect its citizens. Simply put, the students' plight provides us with such a flagrant violation of civil rights that it is hard to remain indifferent at any level.

If this is not enough, this week we saw Fazil Say, Turkey's world renowned pianist, in court defending his right to free expression on twitter. This ongoing trial, which will reconvene in February 2013, is related to comments which he placed on his private Twitter account; according to the state prosecutor, Say should be found guilty for his tweets, claiming they insult Islam, and violate the law which states that it is illegal to "insult the religious values of a section of society." Similar to the Orhan Pamuk case, when in 2006 he was charged with "insulting Turkishness," only to have the charges dropped, Say is well known abroad and a guilty verdict will make waves not only domestically but also internationally.

What is most ironic is that while PM Erdogan, and his government, has been rightly chiseling away at the injustices of the 1980 coup and its legacy, Erdogan is now perceived by some as creating new injustices in their place. Moreover, in my opinion, Erdogan has grossly misunderstood that his electorate victories were driven by his non-compromising stance towards the conservative secular state, a policy which led to the ushering of new found freedoms. However, now, as he retreats from the path of reform, and with no progress being made on the Kurdish issue, it seems that his popularity is on the decline. In other words, it appears that the Turkish society is becoming weary of a polarizing Erdogan, who is perceived by many as clamping down on personal freedoms.

It is for this reason, that at the annual opening of the parliament earlier this month, so many Turkish citizens breathed a sigh of relief when the President of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, a former government member and a strong ally of Erdogan, stated the following: “If there are shortcomings, or wrong practices, or instances that harm our democracy, then these must all be removed without delay. There should be no doubt or concerns in anyone’s mind that Turkey is a democratic state respecting the rule of law.” Lets hope that the government heeds these words, and starts working to implement legislation that will hastily work to bring these injustices to an end.  

Possible New YouTube Ban in Turkey: Blocking the Innocence of Muslims*

For years numerous internet sites, such as the social media site YouTube (see BBC article), were closed down in Turkey for containing videos that insulted the memory of the founder of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (among other reasons). Of course, for the desperate ones who could not live without it, they simply found a user friendly “back door” entrance to enter the site. In a 2011 blog of mine, which covered the massive demonstration against goverment censorship of the internet, I even commented how at times the Turkish President and Prime Minister ridiculed the law claiming they themselves used the banned site.

Two years later, upon an initiative of a government minister, You Tube is once again in danger of being banned from Turkish internet space. A court has ruled that Turkish authorities have the right to ban internet sites which show any part of the controversial movie the Innocence of Muslims.  I will not expand here concerning my thoughts of the movie itself (see my previous blog); however, I will say that just like the previous bans, in no way will this block the movie from being seen. It is almost as if the government believes the banning of the video will protect someone or some group from the unknown, especially when the unknown is nothing more than a shoddy production which does not deserve the time of day. The move on behalf of the Turkish government is sensationalist since I am sure before the movie there were plenty of clips on YouTube, which degraded Islam; just as there is plenty of anti-Semitic material on the site (some originating in Turkey).  So, go ahead and ban the terrible blasphemous video, and see that countering Islamophobia, and hate, cannot be solved by closing eyes of your own citizens.   

*For more on the possible see the Hurriyet Daily News article.