The consequences of irresponsible posting

[Lantana]

I am aware that many of the posters who have so delighted in deliberately making provocative or inflammatory statements on Enjoy Kalkan in recent weeks defend their actions by describing them as ''just a bit of fun''. Whilst that argument is debatable, perhaps all of the Enjoy Kalkan members have overlooked an important fact, although this is a British website, primarily it is about Turkey. If it was deemed by anybody in Turkey to be causing offence, access to it in Turkey could be blocked. This means that anybody living here or on holiday here would not be able to access the site.

Freedom of expression without responsibility is not freedom in any sense of the word, it is anarchy. There has been very little responsibility shown by many posters recently and there does seem to have been a deliberate move to cause anarchy.

In Turkey, we have strict censorship and freedom of expression is very carefully managed.  Today, the biggest trial in recent Turkish History begins, when alleged members of Ergenokon are brought to court. The Ergenokon case has already caused increased sensitivity at every level of government and harsh crackdowns on freedom of speech. Protesters demanding freedom of speech have been jailed and tortured.   Last week a prominent journalist was beaten to death in jail by prison staff.

Perhaps some of those posters who use the freedom of speech argument to defend their right to be obnoxious should pause for a moment and think about this. To die for your belief in freedom is rather different to using the concept to try and cause mayhem on EK.

However wonderful Kalkan is, and as I live here, I agree it is quite wonderful, EK members should be aware of the wider context of Turkish issues which have an impact on every aspect of life here. 
 
An article in The Guardian highlights some of the current dangers of freedom of expression

Creationist gets website blocked Robert Tait in Istanbul The Guardian, Friday October 17 2008

''The website of Turkey''s third largest-selling newspaper has been blocked after a complaint by an Islamic creationist.
Turkish internet users are now denied access to the Vatan newspaper''s website, gazetevatan.com, after a court decided it had insulted Adnan Oktar, a prolific Turkish writer who disputes the theory of evolution. It is believed to be the first major newspaper site to be blocked. About 850 sites are already filtered.
Oktar, who last month successfully had the website of the British evolutionist Richard Dawkins blocked in Turkey, complained that he had been defamed in readers'' comments to stories on the online edition of Vatan, a liberal publication.
His spokeswoman, Seda Aral, claimed the comments included obscenities and said the newspaper had ignored requests to remove them. "We are trying to protect ourselves," she said. "Vatan is always propagating against Mr Oktar and constantly publishes allegations about him. When people read these they are provoked into using these insults against him."
Oktar, who writes under a pseudonym, Harun Yahya, last year succeeded in blocking access to worldpress.com, and in April sued Google Groups for libel.
Critics say Turkey''s penal code makes it too easy to obtain blocking orders, although in practice prohibitions are often easily overcome through proxy servers. ''

It is relatively easy here, particularly in the current climate, to obtain a court order to have a website blocked. Surely none of us who joined EK when it was founded and who have gained so much information and pleasure from being members of this virtual community want that to happen.

Lantana


Linkback: https://www.enjoykalkan.com/forum/index.php?topic=2530.0

[Chucky]

Thank you for drawing attention to this Lantana, and thank you for taking the time to post it.
I know you were one of our loyal members who had been deterred from participating due to the malicious posts of a few.
Nice to have you back.

[Lorretta]

As always a thoughtful and eloquent post from Lantana.
Thank you for taking the time to post.

[misty]

I agree Lorretta this makes you realise how lucky we are in the UK at the moment.......this may change with the current governments plans on monitoring us but I don''t think we will ever have the restrictions Lantana mentioned in his post.

[Chucky]

Lets hope your luck does''nt run out Misty

[popps]

Hi, I''ve been away for a while. Have there been obnoxious posts on this site. Can''t find any without direction.

[Enjoy Kalkan]

Popps,

Lets not bring such posts back in the headlines 

[Clive]

Thankyou Lantana for bringing this matter to our attention.

I live here but am aware that there is not the freedom of speech that we enjoy in the UK,that is no problem if we show respect for the customs, religion and politics of our host country.

[kalkan wife]

Lantana
I have been travelling in Eastern Turkey for the last couple of weeks (fantastic, by the way and everyone should do it!), and read with interest your comments about blogs / forums etc being closed down in Turkey. I am interested in your comments that ''Protesters demanding freedom of speech have been jailed and tortured.   Last week a prominent journalist was beaten to death in jail by prison staff.'' I find this very worrying, can you please tell me where I can read about this atrocity?

[Chucky]

The article was in the BBC News of 14/10/08. I found the article via Google.