NEW SOCIAL MEDIA LAW IN EFFECT

Press freedom in Turkey: At least 347 news articles censored in 3 months

After the new social media law entered into force yesterday, the RSF has expressed concerns about the “use of the Internet to censor outspoken journalists in Turkey, where new legislation gives the government much more control over social media platforms.”

İstanbul

Press freedom in Turkey: At least 347 news articles censored in 3 months

* Photo: gizmodo.com.au

Click to read the article in Turkish

After the new social media law entered into force in Turkey yesterday (October 1), the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has released a written statement and expressed concerns about the new legislation.

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With its statement entitled "Tighter control over social media, massive use of cyber-censorship," the RSF has expressed its concerns that the Internet "will be used to censor outspoken journalists" as the "new legislation gives the government much more control over social media platforms."

Commenting on the new legislation, Erol Önderoğlu, the RSF Turkey Representative, has reportedly said:

"These new provisions give the Turkish government a great deal of control over social media and, if platforms comply with demands from the authorities, many online journalists could be under direct judicial threat.

"As all forms of online dissent have already been subjected to systematic and arbitrary interventions, an unprecedented level of censorship on platforms should be expected from today onwards."

347 articles censored in three months

According to the RSF, since July 31, the organization "has registered no fewer than 347 cases of online articles being censored for constituting an insult, threat to national security, or violation of the 'right to be forgotten'."

"This censorship has been carried out at the request not only of the authorities, but also companies and individuals close to the government."

3 sites completely inaccessible

In this context, the RSF has specifically referred to the access blocks on three news websites in Turkey, including daily Yeni Yaşam and Oda TV:

"Without giving any specific grounds, a local magistrate in the southern city of Antakya banned access to the website of the pro-Kurdish daily Yeni Yaşam on 25 September, the same day that that former parliamentarians and other prominent members of the pro-Kurdish party HDP were arrested, above all in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır.

"Radio Özgürüz, a website created by Can Dündar, a well-known journalist living in self-imposed exile in Germany, was censored by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) on 13 August. To circumvent censorship by the Turkish authorities, Dündar has already had to relaunch the site 21 times since its creation in 2017.

"Finally, the BTK blocked access to the OdaTV website in March after two of its journalists were jailed for naming a Turkish intelligence officer who had been killed in Libya. This is the first time in 13 years that OdaTV has been subjected to censorship of this scale."

The RSF has also reminded that Turkey is ranked 154th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

About the social media law

The RSF has also shared brief details about the new legislation: "Passed by the Turkish parliament on 29 July, the amendment will force online platforms with more than a million users to send reports to Turkey's Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) on their response to requests from administrative or judicial authorities to censor or block access to online content.

"On an order from a judge or the BTK, the Union of Access Providers (ESB) will also be required to instruct Internet hosts or search engines to execute access blocking decisions within four hours on pain of an administrative fine.

"If platforms fail to comply with a requirement under the amendment to store the data of Turkish users in Turkey, they could be ordered to pay an administrative fine of up to 30 million Turkish lira (3.9 million euros), they could be banned from advertising and, as a last resort, they authorities could even impose a drastic reduction in the bandwidth available to them in Turkey.

"Platforms are also required to appoint a representative in Turkey who is responsible for implementing Turkish court orders to withdraw content or block access to social media accounts."

(HA/SD)