Posts Tagged ‘blogging’
March 8th, 2011
Two journalists, Nedem Sener and Ahmet Sik, were
sentenced to prison on Sunday pending an investigation into allegations that the military attempted to overthrow the Turkish government in 2003. About 60 journalists are currently imprisoned and thousands face prosecution for their work, reported the Turkish Journalists’ Association.
Meanwhile, there are other concerns about
press freedom in Turkey; 600,000 bloggers cannot access their blogs, after Google’s blogging service, Blogspot, was
blocked in the country, for example. The site was banned by a Turkish court after users showed football matches on their blogs. Digiturk, a satellite TV firm, has exclusive rights to broadcast the matches in Turkey and approached the courts when it became aware of the matches being shown on the blogs.
March 4th, 2011
With the enactment of Law No. 5651 in May 2007, Turkey has become the land of internet censorship, argues Dr Yaman Akdeniz
(more…)
March 3rd, 2011
Turkish police have
detained 10 people, many of them journalists, in the latest crackdown on an alleged secularist network, which is accused of conspiring to overthrow the government. This follows February’s high profile
raid on the Oda TV news portal. On Monday blog publishing service blogspot.com was
banned inside Turkey.
February 28th, 2011
Film blogger Michael Fleming was
prevented from attending Sunday night’s
Academy Awards ceremony. Fleming is the correspondent for entertainment news blog
Deadline.com, which
had published leaked details about the Awards. In response to these comments, the Motion Picture Academy officially revoked Fleming’s press pass. The Hollywood Reporter’s sources have confirmed that this
ban was “punishment for the breaches of secrecy surrounding the show”. The blog’s editor, Nikki Finke, has made a formal
complaint to Academy spokesperson Leslie Unger.
February 22nd, 2011
Blogger Ahmad Abu Khair was arrested on Sunday morning while driving from Banias to Damascus,
it has been reported. Charges are unknown. The arrest came a few days after the Syrian blogger Tal al-Mallouhi
was sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly passing information to the United States.
February 16th, 2011
The Italian police have
seized the
Savona e Ponente blog after it ran a satirical
piece entitled “I want to kill Berlusconi”. Journalist Valeria Rossi heavily criticised the Italian prime minister, writing that: “You can’t feel guilty of wishing him death, because he’s not human: he’s an alien with incredible psychic powers.” The article condemns Berlusconi for his sexual affairs and abuse of power. He has been repeatedly accused of restricting press freedom in Italy.
February 15th, 2011
Young Syrian blogger, Tal al-Mallouhi, has been
sentenced to five years in prison by a state security court on espionage charges. Mallouhi, who was 18 at the time of her arrest in December 2009, was
accused of spying for the US embassy in Egypt and held incommunicado for nine months before her family was allowed to see her. Before her arrest she ran a blog that focused on poetry, social commentary and Palestinian issues.
A poem criticising restrictions on freedom of expression in Syria may be the reason behind her arrest, activists have suggested.
February 14th, 2011
Journalist and blogger Olena Bilozerska has managed to
recover some of the equipment and material which was
illegally seized from her home in Kiev on 12 January. The police interrogation on 8 February included
questions about her sources. The police returned some items but have kept 162 CDs and DVDs which contain material needed for her work. She regained her camera and video camera, neither of which was working. The authorities also returned her computer, which had been dismantled.
