Yaman Akdeniz: Turkey Can Be First Country to Ban Netflix

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After an almost 5-hour meeting held on September 25, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) approved the regulation which grants an authority to impose an extensive supervision and censorship on radio and television broadcasts made on the Internet.

Speaking to bianet, Prof. Dr. Yaman Akdeniz from the Faculty of Law at İstanbul Bilgi University has warned that the regulation in question is ambiguous and censorship can be imposed by using this ambiguity.

The bag bill draft, which covers granting right of broadcasting and license of transmission to the websites making radio and television broadcasts on the Internet and foresees supervision of these broadcasters, were approved by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) on March 21, 2018.

As per the related regulation, the platform operators providing services for a fee will be obliged to give the information and documents of every type about their subscribers to the RTÜK.

Another controversial article of the regulation is that the websites making broadcasts on the Internet will have to pay a license fee to be able to continue their online broadcasts.

"Turkey can be the first country to ban Netflix"

Prof. Dr. Yaman Akdeniz has explained the main problem as follows:

"In the regulation, it is not clear which concept will apply to whom. There is a reference to the channels making broadcasts on the Internet; however, it is not clear what is meant by this concept: Does it refer to the broadcasters that transfer their existing broadcasts from the television to the Internet or to the ones who create special content for the Internet?

"Turkey can be the first country in the world to ban Netflix. Now, let us see whether the online platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime will accept the demands of blurring their own contents or putting a flower on them.

"Or, let us think of it in this way: What if you demand that these platforms remove their contents? What will they do? I do not think that their infrastructure is ready for it." (HA/SD)