Turkish opposition wants debate on corruption

ISTANBUL – One of Turkey’s opposition leaders, Deniz Baykal, wants a television debate on an alleged corruption scandal in which governing party AKP is involved. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not responding to the offer.

Erdogan hopes that the scandal will blow over, but in the meantime it has kept Turkish politics and media enthralled for

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Meanwhile, at TRT… a game show

A game show. State broadcaster TRT 1 is broadcasting a game show after the announcement that governing AK Party will not be closed down for anti-secular activities. TRT 2 and 3 are not much better: faithfully the TRT cameras (the only ones allowed in parliament) are recording parliamentary proceedings. Interesting, a debate about education.
But of course, TRT is not …

A courageous and heartless, but above all a typical Turkish prosecutor

Who is the man that filed a complaint against the AK Party in the Constitutional Court?

A ‘typical Turkish prosecutor’, that’s the most emotionally neutral description of Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, the highest public prosecutor in Turkey. Yalcinkaya filed a complaint against governing party AKP because the party is allegedly the focal point of anti-secular activities. The characterization comes from Levent Korkut, constitutional …

“Turkish judges don’t understand the internet”

Once again youtube in Turkey has been blocked. The biggest problem according to many people: Turkish judges don’t understand the internet.

(published in daily newspaper De Pers)

It’s ridiculous, says economy student Hatice, to think you protect Atatürk by banning the whole of youtube because of one insulting video. Turkey closed the popular video website again last week because of a video …

“Our message is our protection”

There are hardly any independent newspapers in Turkey. The exceptions are satirical weekly magazines, which seem to have more freedoms and say they have a journalistic aim. “ Leman isn’t meant to make people laugh or to cheer them up. Leman is pure journalism.”

Istanbul – No, Zafer Aknar, editor in chief …