Highest number of content removal orders in Turkey target news on corruption, irregularities

* Photo: Murad Sezer

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The Media Research Association (MEDAR) has published its "Impact of Social Media Law on Media Freedom in Turkey Monitoring Report: Extended Scan - October 2020 / October 2021."

With this report, the Association has set out to monitor the effects of "The Law on the Regulation of Broadcasts via Internet and Prevention of Crimes Committed through Such Broadcasts", which was adopted in Turkey on July 29, 2020 and came into force in October 2020.

Sharing the main findings with the public at the end of the report, the MEDAR has also offered some policy recommendations in this context.

Most of them about corruption and irregularities

According to the MEDAR report, while the 675 decisions to take down content targeted news articles on corruption and irregularities, 466 were about "misconduct in office". The report has found that businesspeople, companies and bureaucrats mostly requested removal of content.

When the reasons for content removal are considered, it is seen that 1,080 articles were removed "because they violated personal rights."

The MEDAR report covering 36 media outlets has also shown that the highest number of content removal orders were faced by Cumhuriyet newspaper (with 144 articles) while it was followed by BirGün newspaper (with 129 articles) and by Oda TV (with 98 articles).

'Social media law should be restructured'

At the end of the report, the MEDAR has also offered some policy recommendations, underlining that the amendments that have been introduced in Turkey in this context deal a blow to freedom of press and expression instead of protecting fundamental rights and freedoms.

Accordingly, the Association has recommended that the relevant bodies and the public should be included in the law-making process; independent inspection bodies should be established; the effects of the law should be identified and these effects should be taken into account in drafting new legislation; the law should be restructured in such a way that the fundamental rights and freedoms of all constituents of society are protected.

Views on the report

BirGün Newspaper's Editorial Coordinator İbrahim Varlı and Oda TV news website's Managing Editor Can Özçelik have also shared their views regarding the findings shared in the MEDAR report.

Referring to BirGün's news on corruption and irregularities, İbrahim Varlı has briefly said, "From the businessman of the government to its bureaucrat, from its minister to MP... All of them may have a decision of content removal taken even from the smallest local court. But 'removing content' does not mean that this corruption and these irregularities were not committed."

Oda TV Managing Editor Can Özçelik has also found the number and content of the news taken down from news websites "striking." Özçelik has noted that when newspapers are excluded from the count, Oda TV is the media outlet that faces the highest amount of censorship on its news articles: "And what are these news articles about? Mostly corruption..." (HA/SD)

Click here for the full report (in Turkish)

Click here for the full report (in English)