5. Freedom of the press in Turkey?

I wonder if any of you have been following the ongoing "battle" between Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Aydın Doğan. You may be aware that the government recently imposed a $3.9 bn (!) fine on Doğan Media Group, a move which has been severely criticised in the European Union's recent progress report on Turkey. The levy has also been condemned by press associations around the world, seen by many as an attempt to strangle criticism of the government.

And I have just opened the newspaper to read this ridiculous statement by Ahmet Davutoğlu: "There is no censorship in Turkey." Yeah, right. Try to open YouTube off campus, or any other web sites deemed to contain "offensive" material. Oh, but Tayyip Erdoğan is allowed to access YouTube! Let's not forget that. And last year, my class blog was suddenly and inexplicably banned for several days. No doubt my readers can provide many more examples...

One of the biggest concerns when we consider the notion of press freedom in Turkey is still Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which makes it illegal to "publicly denigrate" (how do you define denigrate?) the Turkish nation. This latter wording was changed from "Turkishness" in 2008. Numerous writers and journalists have been prosecuted under this law, including such high profile cases as Orhan Pamuk, Hrant Dink and Elif Şafak. Note that Elif Şafak was put on trial for something one of the characters in her novel said. You can read the EU's outstanding concerns about Article 301 on page 18 of their recent report.

These are just three issues that immediately come to mind when thinking about how much freedom of expression there is in Turkey today. I would encourage you to explore this topic, and to blog about the results of your research...