Kamil Pasha

YouTube Ban

A court order blocking access to popular video-sharing Web site YouTube that has been in place for one-and-a-half months was rescinded on Tuesday night; however, the Web site remained open only for several hours as it was banned again around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. Turkey’s frequent YouTube bans, often caused by videos deemed insulting to the nation’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk… places the country alongside China, Pakistan and Thailand, the only three countries in the world that have banned YouTube so far.… Since January of this year, hundreds of Web sites have been blocked. (click for article)

Singing Ban

From the New York Times:

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A defense lawyer says three members of a school chorus accused of singing a Kurdish rebel song during a U.S. tour have been acquitted by a Turkish court.

Lawyer Baran Pamuk says the court ruled that his clients, aged 15-18, didn’t intend to put out propaganda on behalf of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Pamuk says he believes a juvenile court trying six younger members of the chorus is likely to drop the charges.

The nine were charged with spreading separatist propaganda after returning from the tour during which they allegedly sang a song called ”Enemy,” regarded as a rebel song, in San Francisco. Pamuk said Thursday that prosecutors have launched an investigation into the director of the children’s chorus.

Publishing Ban

A Turkish publisher has been sentenced to five months in prison for publishing a book by a British author about a mass killing of Armenians in 1915. Ragip Zarakolu was found guilty of “insulting the institutions of the Turkish Republic” under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) on Tuesday. The controversial article was recently amended under pressure from the EU to ensure freedom of speech in Turkey. This is the first high-profile verdict to be handed down since then. Zarakolu’s sentence seems to confirm campaigners’ fears that changes to the law were merely cosmetic. In April it became a crime to insult the Turkish nation, rather than Turkishness. But insulting the Turkish nation is still punishable by up to two years in jail. Zarakolu was brought to trial for publishing a book by British author George Jerjian on the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

Turkey denies the killings were genocide, saying both Turks and Armenians were killed, and the issue remains highly sensitive.

Reading the verdict, the judge told Zarakolu he had insulted the Turkish republic and its founders. His own defense — that he had the right to criticize — was rejected. (click for article)

Speech Ban

The trial of singer Bülent Ersoy, who is charged with having made anti-military remarks during a TV program earlier this year, started in Istanbul yesterday. In a TV program broadcast on Feb. 24, Ersoy, a transsexual singer, said that if she were to have a son, she would not let him fight in other people’s wars, referring to the increasing number of soldiers killed fighting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists. A jail term from nine months to nearly three years was demanded for the singer… The Public Prosecutor … had indicted Ersoy on grounds that her remarks were intended to “make the public detest military service,” a crime under the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). The indictment states that Turks place great importance on military service and referred to the saying “Every Turk is born a soldier.”

News Ban

A Turkish military court on Friday banned the broadcast of stories regarding terrorism, except those handed out to media organs.

The General Staff’s military prosecutor launched an investigation after real-time intelligence images, which were classified, were broadcast on a TV channel. The prosecutor demanded that broadcasts should be ended until the investigation –launched within the scope of an article regulating “crimes against state secrets” –was finalized. (click for article)

Tags: Rights //