American Academy Of Pediatrics Claims Broad Consensus On Violent Media Effect That Doesn't Remotely Exist

Turkey Blocks Wikileaks After It Dumps Nearly 300,000 Turkish Gov't Emails

from the censorship-wars dept

Wed, Jul 20th 2016 9:31am — Mike Masnick

Turkey has a pretty detailed history of banning websites that it doesn't like, so the news that it's now blocking Wikileaks hardly comes as a surprise. After all, following the failed coup attempt, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wasted no time in moving forward with what appears to be a somewhat vicious crackdown on tens of thousands of people. So, when Wikileaks suddenly released 300,000 emails from the Turkish government for anyone to search and explore, it's no surprise that all access to Wikileaks was quickly blocked.

WikiLeaks ordered to be blocked nationwide in #Turkey after releasing 300 thousand emails from #Erdogan's party AKP pic.twitter.com/Q5vWWimklY
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 20, 2016

Of course, it seems at least marginally noteworthy that, just a few months ago, the European Court of Human Rights had ruled that at least one of Turkey's internet bans, on YouTube, had breached the right to information. Of course, with Erdogan's activities this week, you get the feeling he doesn't care much at all what the European Court of Human Rights thinks about his actions right now.

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Filed Under: blocks, censorship, emails, free speech, recep tayyip erdogan, turkey
Companies: wikileaks

19 Comments

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Mason Wheeler (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 9:57am

Wait, wait... a European high court talking about censorship laws breaching the fundamental human right to information?

That's incredibly ironic. I know there's a good reason to say so, but I must have... forgotten.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2016 @ 10:01am

Erdogan just doesn't want people seeing how he increased the size of his penis in just 1 easy coup.
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That One Guy (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 10:18am

The brutal truth
Of course, with Erdogan's activities this week, you get the feeling he doesn't care much at all what the European Court of Human Rights thinks about his actions right now.

And why should he?

If the other governments have been willing to put up with him before now it's not like he has anything to fear if he's 'only' cracking down on the peons in his own country, especially with the coup attempt to provide cover for his actions(you know, just like how the US, UK and numerous other governments use 'terrorism' as justification).

What, are they going to send a sternly worded letter and tell him to stop that or else?
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- Ninja (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 10:29am
  
  Re: The brutal truth
  More likely they will mobilize the media to tell people there's nothing to see here, move along and be a good citizen. And things will keep running as usual.
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- JoeCool (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 10:51am
  
  Re: The brutal truth
  What, are they going to send a sternly worded letter and tell him to stop that or else?
  
  Disney needs to send him a C&D over stealing their IP. In particular, faking a rebellion to propel him from President to Emperor.
  
  He can ignore human rights activists, but Disney's lawyers are feared by one and all... and rightly so.
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  - David, 20 Jul 2016 @ 1:04pm
    
    Re: Re: The brutal truth
    There's plenty of prior art I am afraid.
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    - JoeCool (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 1:38pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: The brutal truth
      Doesn't matter to Disney.
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- DannyB (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 12:14pm
  
  Re: The brutal truth
  > What, are they going to send a sternly worded letter
  > and tell him to stop that or else?
  
  They need to do what the UN would do.
  
  The UN would pass a resolution strongly condemning Erdogan's actions.
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  - That One Guy (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 1:00pm
    
    Re: Re: The brutal truth
    So a stern public letter telling him to knock it off?
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Ninja (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 10:26am

In another news, Erdogan floods court systems around the world with defamation lawsuits against people reporting, sharing or thinking about the things the leaked mails revealed. Swears he isn't into nazi sadomasochism. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile approves it.
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afn29129 (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 10:35am

The Great Purge
Joseph Stalin and his Great Purge of 1936 to 38. Erdogan and his smaller-Great Purge of 2016 till ... Done for the same reasons.
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- DannyB (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 12:18pm
  
  Re: The Great Purge
  The US great purge of 2017 ?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2016 @ 5:15pm
    
    Re: Re: The Great Purge
    Only if the American Taliban win the election.
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- John Fenderson (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 1:57pm
  
  Re: The Great Purge
  Everyone has to learn to walk before they learn to run.
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DannyB (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 12:18pm

Before we are too harsh on Erdogan . . .
Before we are too harsh on Erdogan, we (the US) needs to wait until after our elections in November.

The respect others have for the US government could suffer if we condemn another government leader, and then have one ourselves who does even worse.

Of course, I don't now if the level of respect for the government can drop below zero. It might be worth consulting congress about that one. Or Comcast.
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- John Fenderson (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 1:58pm
  
  Re: Before we are too harsh on Erdogan . . .
  I'm not following this logic. No matter how terrible our President may be, that in no way makes other leaders less terrible, or makes it so that we shouldn't call them out for being terrible.
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  - DannyB (profile), 21 Jul 2016 @ 6:23am
    
    Re: Re: Before we are too harsh on Erdogan . . .
    You're right, of course. It's like us torturing doesn't make torture any less horrible. But it does remove our ability to credibly call it out as horrible when we are doing it ourselves.
    
    Same with:
    * patents in East Texas
    * government corruption
    * police brutality
    etc
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    - John Fenderson (profile), 21 Jul 2016 @ 7:13am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Before we are too harsh on Erdogan . . .
      "But it does remove our ability to credibly call it out as horrible when we are doing it ourselves."
      
      Only if we're failing to call out the US as well.
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ECA (profile), 20 Jul 2016 @ 12:25pm

wHAT RIGHTS
What Right do the citizens have to KNOW what is happening in their OWN nation??

Especially when All the people around the WORLD know..
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