As Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım was giving an interview to BBC World News on Turkey’s democratic credentials, a caption streamed simultaneously saying that “Wikipedia was blocked in Turkey” on Saturday night, Birgün daily reported.
Prime Minister Yıldırım has talked about the state of political affairs in Turkey, over the transparency of Turkish regime and the level of democracy in the country. Throughout broadcasting of Yıldırım’s interview on Saturday evening, a caption read as ‘Turkish authorities block Wikipedia without giving reason’ drew attention of viewers. The interesting scene has showed the gap between the groundless democracy rhetoric of Turkey’s officials and their anti-democratic practices in real life.
Turkey has blocked online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the telecommunications watchdog the Turkish Telecommunications Authority (BTK) said on Saturday, citing a law allowing it to ban access to websites deemed obscene or a threat to national security.
Monitoring groups have accused Turkey of blocking access to social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, particularly in the aftermath of militant attacks. The government has in the past denied blocking access to some sites, blaming outages on spikes in usage after major events. But technical experts at watchdog groups say the blackouts on social media are intentional, aimed in part at stopping the spread of militant images and propaganda.
Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) has documented that 235 journalists are now in jails, most in pre-trial detention languishing in notorious Turkish prisons without even a conviction. Of those in Turkish prisons, 214 are arrested pending trial, Only 21 journalists remain convicted and serving time in Turkish prisons. An outstanding detention warrants remain for 103 journalists who live in exile or remain at large in Turkey. Also, over 180 media outlets have been closed by AKP government since the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
May 1, 2017
