The commissioning editor for the London-based Guardian daily has released an online survey that asks people living in Turkey whether the ongoing crackdown on expression has affected their daily lives and if they want to give any advice to others around the world living under a leader similar in style to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Maeve Shearlaw, who released the survey, described Turkey as a country that was once held up as an exemplar of secular democracy in the Muslim world and now is the world’s biggest prison for journalists.
According to Shearlaw, since he came to power in 2014, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has slowly been “tightening his grip on freedom of expression, choking his critics.”
“If you live in Turkey we want to hear how the climate is affecting you. Has the crackdown on expression affected your daily life? When did you notice that free speech was being compromised? Have you adjusted what you say and do online? And what advice would you give to other people around the world living under a similar style of leader? Fill in your details in the form below and we’ll use some of your submissions in our coverage of freedom of speech in Turkey. Alternatively, you can email maeve.shearlaw@theguardian.com,” Shearlaw said in her call to readers. (turkeypurge.com) Feb. 15, 2017
