

“The aim is to now control what a person shares online, when it might be something he would say out loud at any coffee shop across the country,” Uzunoğlu said.įormally known as Law on Amending the Press Law, the regulation carries prison sentences of up to three years for spreading “disinformation” online that is deemed a threat to Turkey’s security or public health, and increases the sentence by 50 percent if the content is published by anonymous accounts. When you’re on Twitter, you may think twice after writing 60, 70 characters and decide it’s better to delete it. “The main interlocutor this time is the citizen himself.

In Turkey, we already have regulations and rules for institutions, including large media that subject them to serious control,” he said. “I would call this the self-censorship law. Now, the target is social media users themselves, said Sarphan Uzunoğlu, the director of NewsLabTurkey.

But in recent years, the government has trained its sights here, banning access to Germany’s Deutsche Welle online Turkish news edition and passing internet legislation last year to exert more influence over the platforms. That has made the online sphere a vital outlet in Turkey, where four out of five people use platforms like Twitter and Facebook to find news and commentary that deviate from the official narrative.
Human muzzle prison tv#
It has one of the world’s highest incarceration rates for journalists and broad governmental control of mainstream media, with nine out of 10 TV channels and newspapers either run by the state or companies close to Erdoğan. Turkey has long faced criticism for its crackdown on the press, relying on anti-terrorism, libel and other laws to restrict speech. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed the law into force on Oct. 13 as the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its governing partner, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) ignoring public protests and objections by rights defenders, opposition parties and European officials. Prosecutors at the time singled out a video broadcast Roizman made in July 2022 in which he criticized Russia’s intervention.Turkey’s parliament passed the so-called “ disinformation law” on Oct. Roizman, who was mayor from 2013 to 2018, was arrested last August on charges of discrediting the Russian military, under a new law adopted after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine. He enjoyed broad popularity while serving as mayor of Yekaterinburg, a city of 1.5 million people in the Ural Mountains. Yevgeny Roizman, 60, a sharp critic of the Kremlin, is one of the most visible and charismatic opposition figures in Russia. The dissident former mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city was found guilty Friday of such discrediting, but avoided a prison sentence. The authorities have methodically targeted people and organizations critical of the Kremlin, branding many as “foreign agents”, declaring some as “undesirable” and prosecuting those found to have discredited the military. Since launching the Ukraine operation in February 2022, the Russian government has intensified its crackdown on dissent and toughened legislation against critics. “Since the beginning of the special military operation of the Russian Federation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, Greenpeace activists have been engaged in anti-Russian propaganda, calling for further economic isolation of our country and tougher sanctions,” it said.Īmsterdam-based Greenpeace International said it had no immediate comment. MOSCOW (AP) - Russia on Friday declared the global environmental group Greenpeace to be an undesirable organization, effectively banning it from operating in the country, its latest move to muzzle critical voices.Ī statement from the national prosecutor-general’s office said it had determined that Greepeace posed “a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation” and pointed in particular to the conflict in Ukraine.
