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Roundup: Turks start to organize against Internet controlISTANBUL, Jul 17, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- by Cinar Kiper For the first time in two years since video-sharing site YouTube was banned, Turks angered with Internet censorship began to march and chant slogans against ministers responsible for the bans. On Saturday nearly 2,000 gathered in a rally against Internet censorship, citing over 5,000 websites that have been blocked by the government for having "inappropriate content." The protestors marched down Istanbul's central Istiklal Avenue chanting slogans for YouTube and against the Transportation Minister, whose Ministry is responsible for site bans. The rally was organized by the Common Platform Against Internet Censorship, a platform of over 50 non-governmental organizations established last month in response to the government's blocking of several Google services on June 3. The first article of the platform's declaration states, " Internet users' right to freedom of thought and access to information cannot be blocked." Turks have dealt with Internet censorship for years, and even though the continuing ban on popular video-sharing website YouTube since May 2008 has had the most publicity, thousands of sites have been blocked, to the point where Reporters Without Borders (RSF) put Turkey on its "under surveillance" list for Internet censorship earlier this year, alongside countries such as Russia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Eritrea. Yet public displays of displeasure were not widespread until Saturday's rally. The largest gathering before had been 300 people in May showing up to one of Istanbul's prominent nightclubs, Ghetto, for a party protesting censorship. Back then, Ghetto founder Lorris Mizrahi had shared his frustrations with Xinhua, saying "There is a malaise amongst the people, they are not demanding their basic rights." But Dr. Ozgur Uckan, professor at Bilgi University and one of the organizers of Saturday's rally, told Xinhua there had always been popular dissatisfaction with Internet censorship but people just hadn't taken to the streets before. "This rally was organized in a week, we couldn't get such turnout if there hadn't been significant dissatisfaction," he said. Everyone is displeased with the restrictions, even President Abdullah Gul, who wrote on twitter on May 18 that "there are many questions about YouTube. I am against its being shut down but there is a legal decision about the matter. As the president I cannot interfere with the judiciary." Some also have more practical concerns about censorship. Murat Bingol, who runs an Internet cafe in Istanbul's central Beyoglu district, told Xinhua he loses many customers because they cannot access certain sites, particularly YouTube. "The only thing we ask of the government is for them to allow YouTube. If there are offending videos, they should block those, not the whole site," Bingol said. Even the Telecommunications Communications Presidency (TIB), the organization in charge of monitoring and blocking access to websites, admitted on its website that "as anyone with knowledge of the disorganized nature of Internet is aware, the only 100 percent effective method of blocking access (to questionable content) is to have the content removed." But in Turkey, it is not the content that is removed, but the access to questionable sites which is blocked. Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, associate professor of law at Bilgi University, told Xinhua that Turkey exhibits a disproportional reaction towards censorship, "just because they can't find the guy responsible for uploading illegal content and punish him, they block the site and instead punish 70 million people." Regardless, between easy access and lack of government action against the hosts of blocked sites, people had no reason to take to the streets, until Saturday's rally. Dr. Akdeniz, who is also a member of the platform that organized the rally, told Xinhua "we all took to the streets today because of certain arbitrary bans (on certain Google services) that took place last month." The third article of the Common Platform Against Internet Censorship's Declaration states, "The Indirect censorship against Google services enacted on June 3, 2010 is against both the constitution and basic legal principles." And so Akdeniz, who also authored a January report on Internet censorship for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) where he heavily criticized the government's censorship, is satisfied with the outcome of the rally, saying the government must now start listening to the people, adding "the government's agenda must now change and become more democratic." |