Posts Tagged ‘Turkey’
February 21st, 2012
The Paris and Cologne offices of a Turkish newspaper were
attacked by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) last week. Zaman newspaper says that a group of nearly 15 masked PKK supporters entered its Paris office on 15 February, threatening employees and breaking furniture and computers. Meanwhile AFP has reported that arsonists torched the paper’s Cologne headquarters on the evening of the same day. The EU, USA and Turkey all classify the PKK as a terrorist organisation.
January 13th, 2012
An art exhibition in
Turkey has been cancelled by organisers after municipal officials were
accused of censorship. Three photographs were removed from the exhibit titled “Aykırı” (Contrary) by officials from the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality after newspaper reports suggested some photographs contradicted religious and social values. Another report said that the exhibition insulted “religious values has alarmed the country.” Following the removal of the images by authorities, organisers İzmir Photography Art Association (IFOD) pulled the exhibition. Among the photos that caused controversy were two headscarfed women kissing each other, two men kissing each other, and a headscarfed woman wearing a bikini.
January 6th, 2012
The trial of several journalists accused of being involved in an alleged plot to overthrow the Turkish government had degraded the status of press freedom in the country, writes Ece Temelkuran
(more…)
December 22nd, 2011
As over 40 people, many of them journalists, are detained on terrorism charges across Turkey, Kaya Genç examines the latest attempt to silence the Kurdish press
(more…)
December 21st, 2011
Forty
Turkish journalists were
arrested in raids which targeted suspected members of the “press and propaganda wing” of a banned Kurdish separatist group. The arrests in Istanbul yesterday morning came during
continuing investigation into the outlawed Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK). At around 7am yesterday, anti-terrorist police raided the offices of several media organisations, the majority of which were pro-Kurdish media. Hours after the arrests, hundreds of Turkish journalists participated in a hastily organised
protest march.
November 1st, 2011
Turkish publisher
Ragıp Zarakolu , recipient of the 2008 International Publishers Association (IPA) Freedom to Publish Prize, was arrested on 28 October in Istanbul. Viewed by many as Turkey’s most prominent free expression and minority rights activist, Zarakolu has been accused of being a member of an illegal organisation under the anti-terror legislation, a press release from IPA said today. University professor Büşra Ersanlı was also arrested and over 40 other individuals were taken into custody on the same day as part of a
recent crackdown on the KCK (Union of Kurdistan Communities). Zarakolu’s son, Deniz, was
also arrested last month after giving a lecture at the Political Science Academy of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy (BDP) opposition party.
October 20th, 2011
A
Turkish man
could face two years in prison for comments made about Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdoğan on his Facebook page. A public prosecutor in Ankara is calling for the man’s imprisonment based on insulting Erdogan, along with some of his cabinet members and ministers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The man is being charge under
Article 301 of Turkey’s Criminal Code.
September 29th, 2011
A cartoonist is
facing trial for a caricature in which he renounces God.
Turkish cartoonist Bahadır Baruter created an image showing an imam and believers praying in a mosque, with one believer on his mobile phone, asking God to excuse him from the last part of the prayer to run errands. The Istanbul chief public prosecutor’s office charged Baruter with “insulting the religious values adopted by a part of the population” and requested that he be imprisoned for one year. The cartoon, which was published in the weekly Penguen magazine, included the words ”There is no Allah, religion is a lie”, hidden in the image.
