21 Dec 2009 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Cihan Hayirsevener, the editor of a local newspaper in the northwestern Turkish city of Bandirma has been shot dead. The shooting follows threats made against him over his coverage of a corruption scandal. The 53-year-old was walking to the newspaper’s office shortly on Friday when he was shot in the leg three times by an unidentified assailant, the Anatolia news agency reported. One of the bullets ruptured a vital artery and he later died in hospital. Read more here
23 Nov 2009 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
A government directive published on 13 November lifted all remaining restrictions on the media’s use of minority languages. The use of Kurdish had been allowed in public printed media and one public TV station, TRT6. However, privately-owned radio and TV stations were limited to 5 hours maximum of Kurdish language broadcast per week. Moreover, all Kurdish TV broadcasting was required to provide Turkish subtitles, making live broadcasting impossible. Read more here
20 Nov 2009 | Uncategorized
This is a guest post by Felix Colchester
The Turkish government’s much anticipated “Kurdish Initiative” was discussed in parliament on 10 November, with many political parties eager to have their say on how best to solve the long-standing “Kurdish problem”. Speculation is rife as to the details of the initiative; thought to be amongst its key policies are the decentralisation of power away from Ankara, a more inclusive definition of citizenship, and the use of dialogue to pacify and eventually integrate militant groups such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) back into the political process. Why, then, if the “Kurdish Initiative” seems to favour mediation over military campaigns and dialogue over coercion, does it remain almost impossible for the Turkish media to discuss the initiative?
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8 Oct 2009 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Three lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual sites have been blocked by the Turkish telecommunications authority. The sites were deemed to incite or encourage suicide, child abuse, drug-use and obscenity. Galibe.com, haydigayri.com and shemaleturk.com, which have a combined membership of 225,000, argue that they were given no advanced warning of the action.
Read more here
