Turkish Courts Remove 201 Online Content Items on Convicted Fraudster

A convicted Turkish fraudster, Yasam Ayavefe, whose questionable acquisition of Greek citizenship was reported by BIRN, managed to get 201 online content items in Turkey removed under three court orders, the Turkish Media Law Studies Association MLSA’s Free Web Turkey project revealed.

The removed content includes news articles, social media posts and even the official website content and social media posts of the Turkish Police.

An investigation by BIRN and its Greek media partner Solomon in September 2022 revealed that the Turkish businessman acquired honorary Greek citizenship in June 2021 via his political ties.

“Ayavefe’s decision to block access is not a surprise. People who face allegations of corruption, irregularity or any other illegality, immediately apply to the court to block access to news and social media posts containing those allegations,” Ali Safa Korkut, Project Coordinator at the MLSA, explained.

Korkut told BIRN that under Turkish laws it is easy to get online content removed.

“The courts do not show any care when evaluating these access ban applications. In many access-blocking decisions, the URLs for which access-blocking is requested are not checked at all by the judges. Access-blocking decisions are made even for content that has nothing to do with the person requesting access-blocking,” Korkut said.

However, he underlined that Ayavefe’s case is different to most others.

“What is surprising about the decision taken regarding Ayavefe is that the decision was made to block access even for the content shared on the official website and social media accounts of the Turkish Police, stating that Ayavefe was caught by Interpol,” Korkut added.

Some of the news content that Ayavefe managed to get removed with court orders. Photo/Illustration: Media and Law Studies Association, MLSA.

The MLSA report also noted Ayavefe’s request to BIRN to delete several pieces of content.

In July, Bener Ljutviovski, a representative of Ayavefe, asked BIRN to delete its report about him. He also urged BIRN to delete articles about cyberattacks that targeted the Balkan Insight website after the publication of the investigation.

Ljutviovski insisted that Ayavefe had “nothing to do with these accusations” and was being accused “without any proof” of being connected to the DDoS attacks on BIRN’s Balkan Insight website and Solomon’s site after the publication of the investigation.

He called on BIRN to take down the articles in line with Turkish court rulings even though one of those judgments clearly stated that domestic courts in Turkey cannot remove online content of “foreign origin”.

He also appeared to offer BIRN financial incentives in return for compliance: “My client Dr Yasam Ayavefe has an advertising company, if you help us in this case we can provide advertising service to your organisation, so you can grow to bigger organisation. We would love to cooperate with you,” he wrote.

BIRN declined Ljutviovski’s offer and rejected his repeated demands to remove the articles about Ayavefe.

Stung by Criticism, Turkey’s Erdogan Targets Free Speech as Elections Loom

According to the Media and Law Studies Association, MLSA, at least two journalists were arrested, five detained, four placed under investigation and 12 physically attacked while reporting on the earthquake response between February 6 and 27.

Another 14 were expelled from the affected area by security forces and three TV channels that aired reports criticising the response were fined.

Murat Mumtaz Kok, MLSA communications and project director, said that, “on the very first day”, the General Directorate of Security and the president’s Directorate of Communications began issuing warnings against the spread of ‘disinformation’.

“Unfortunately, it seems that from the beginning the government had priorities other than saving people from under the rubble,” Kok told BIRN. “The very cries of people who lost their homes and their loved ones and asked a very fundamental question, ‘Where is the state?’ were immediately criminalised.”

Arrests, fines

An aerial picture taken with a drone shows the rubble of collapsed buildings in the city of Kahramanmaras, southeastern Turkey, 08 February 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/ABIR SULTAN

Kok cited the case of Mehmet Gules, a journalist with Mesopotamia News Agency who was taken into custody in the southeastern town of Diyarbakir two days after the earthquakes after he interviewed a search and rescue volunteer who complained that the state’s chief emergency response bodies were not on the ground.

Gules and the volunteer were accused of stirring “hatred and hostility” among the public; after hours in custody, there were released but banned from leaving Turkey on suspicion of “openly disseminating information misleading the public.”

“This and many other examples as well as Mr President’s explicit threats and insults show that the self-preservation of those in power is more important than the preservation of those who still spend their days mostly out in the open and in freezing conditions,” Kok said.

On February 22, Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council, RTUK, the state agency that monitors and sanctions radio and television broadcasts, fined three TV channels – Fox TV, Halk TV and Tele 1 – between three and five per cent of their monthly advertising revenue due to the critical tone of their coverage. A number of specific programmes were temporarily suspended from broadcasting.

“It truly is heart-breaking that in the aftermath of such a catastrophe, the primary target of the governing alliance remains to be the editorial independence of news organisations, and more generally media freedom and the society’s right to access information,” said Gurkan Ozturan, Media Freedom Rapid Response coordinator at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom.

Threat to free elections

A woman shows to her child a picture of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, Turkey, 18 January 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/ERDEM SAHIN

The authorities have not stopped only at traditional media.

Also on February 22, popular social media platform Eksi Sozluk – known as Turkey’s Reddit – was blocked by the government and accused of “spreading misinformation about the earthquake”.

The platform said it would challenge the decision in court.

Complaining again about “misinformation”, the government also restricted access to Twitter and TikTok and slowed down the Internet. Access was restored the next day following a public outcry, with critics accusing the government of cutting off vital communications channels for survivors, relatives of those who died, and aid campaigners.

So far, police say 441 people have been investigated, 129 people detained and 24 people jailed over “provocative posts on social media platforms concerning the earthquakes in order to create fear and panic among the citizens.”

The crackdown is in line with the government’s ever tighter control over media and Internet freedoms under Erdogan via several draconian laws and regulations.

With elections a matter of months away, experts fear authorities will pursue the crackdown further under the cover of the state of emergency declared after the earthquakes.

“When we see such threats, detention of journalists, throttling of access to Twitter and fines being imposed on the TV stations as well as censorship orders targeting minority publications, it hardly looks solely like an attempt to manipulate the discourse around disaster management but raises suspicions whether this is a move from an election-focused perspective,” Ozturan told BIRN.

The logo of Twitter is seen on a smartphone held besides a Turkish flag. Photo: EPA/Karl-Josef Hildenbrand

Pollsters say Erdogan and his government, already facing a significant challenge to their hold on power, are likely to see a further drop in popularity due to their handling of the earthquake response.

“Considering the threats and actions that have taken place so far, there are no guarantees that these restrictions and violations will not take place during the election period, before, during or after the Election Day, also under the light of the ongoing state of emergency in the region, Ozturan warned.

Kok, from the MLSA, agreed: “The fact that freedom of expression – which was literally used to hang on for dear life – is considered by the government to be an existential threat makes the picture all the more bleak” in the context of imminent elections.

“Millions of people forced to stay in almost completely destroyed cities and which are now under a state of emergency will be expected to make an informed decision at a time when those in power now have all ‘legal’ grounds to cut off the flow of information if that information is deemed dangerous by those in power.”

Turkey Arrests 24 for ‘Provocative’ Social Media Posts on Quakes

Turkish police on Sunday said they have arrested 24 people for “provocative” social media posts following the February 6 earthquake disaster that has killed more than 41,000 people.

“Legal proceedings were initiated against 441 account managers, 129 people were detained in line with the instructions received from the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, and 24 of them were arrested,” the Cyber Crimes department of the Police Directorate said in a written statement on Sunday.

The 24 had posted “provocative posts on social media platforms regarding earthquakes in order to create fear and panic among citizens”, police said.

Devastating twin earthquakes struck southern and south-eastern Turkey on February 6, registering 7.9 and 7.7 on the Richter scale.

Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, AFAD, says it now believes more than 41,000 people lost their lives and more than 108,000 others were injured in addition to millions who lost their homes. At least 2 million people have since left the quake region for safer locations.

Since the first days of the disaster, police have targeted social media users, journalists and experts who commented critically about the government’s slow and ineffective response.

Journalists’ unions and watchdog organisations have reported several incidents when police prevented journalists from reporting in the quake zones.

“We are following and recording the increasing threats, violence and censorship targeting journalists covering the earthquakes and their aftermath,” the Media and Law Studies Association, MLSA, a leading NGO that monitors media freedom violations, said.

According to the government, search and rescue missions are about to wind up operations in 11 provinces hit by the quakes. Experts and officials fear the death toll will increase as the wreckage removal process comtinues.

The real death toll “is at least three to four, maybe five times worse than the announced figures. We will [have to]… and build provinces again,” Osman Bilgin, the provincial governor of Sirnak managing the earthquake response in the Nurdagi district in Gaziantep, said on Sunday.

The government previously blocked most access to Twitter, Tiktok and slowed down the internet in the country as public anger mounted about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government’s response to the crisis.

Access to social media networks and the internet were fully restored a day later, however, following harsh critisism of the move. Critics accused the government of cutting off a key source of communication for relatives of victims, survivors and aid campaigners.

Turkish NGO Sues GSM Operators, Authorities, Over Social Media Ban

Veysel Ok, a lawyer and co-director of Media and Law Studies Association, MLSA, filed a criminal complaint on Friday against mobile network operators and the executives of Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority, BTK, following the ban imposed on Twitter and TikTok during the quake disaster.

Ok’s criminal complaint against them includes “misuse of public duty”, “prevention of communication”, “reckless killing” and “reckless injury”.

“At a time when people were literally holding onto life via social media, this kind of recklessness and irresponsibility are unacceptable,” Ok told BIRN, underlying that the application of bandwidth throttling is “a direct harm inflicted onto people”.

Monday’s massive earthquakes in Turkey registering 7.9 and 7.7 on the Richter scale have devastated the country’s south and south-eastern regions. Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, AFAD, said it believed at least 18,991 people lost their lives and more than 75,500 were injured.

“Turkey is experiencing one of the worst disasters in its history. The authorities, who are responsible for protecting the lives of citizens, but cannot prevent this, actively seek to undermine citizens’ communication, journalists’ work and, unfortunately, search and rescue efforts,” Ok said.

The government’s response to the earthquake has been criticized by numerous survivors, experts and journalists, who say it has failed to deliver assistance to several devastated areas and not used the armed forces effectively, despite having 120,000 personnel in the region.

The government has meanwhile also banned, detained and investigated journalists and experts reporting on the disaster.

On Wednesday, it also blocked access to Twitter and TikTok – main sources of communication for relatives of victims, survivors and aid campaigners. Many people were rescued after they shared their situation and location via Twitter.

Internet connection was also reportedly slowed down by the authorities in what it calls a fight against misinformation.

“The responsibility of GSM operators and BTK officials should not be forgotten in the dust cloud of this disaster,” Ok said, adding that it is the duty of the state to effectively investigate related deaths and bring those responsible before the courts.

“We expect our criminal complaint to be processed promptly and investigated effectively,” Ok concluded.

Twitter was restored in Turkey on Friday following a meeting between government officials and Twitter on Thursday. According to Turkish officials, Twitter pledged to cooperate and to support “Turkey’s efforts to combat disinformation”.

Turkey Blocks Twitter After Public Criticism of Quake Response

The Turkish government has blocked most access to Twitter following growing public anger towards President Recep Tayyip Erdogan government’s response to Monday’s deadly earthquakes.

“Twitter has been restricted in #Turkey; the filtering is applied on major internet providers and comes as the public come to rely on the service in the aftermath of a series of deadly earthquakes,” NetBlocks, an internet observatory that follows global net freedoms, announced.

People now cannot access Twitter at all via two of the three main internet providers. TurkTelekom and Turkcell have completely blocked access. Vodafone still allows slower access to Twitter.

Days after the most devastating earthquake disaster in modern-day Turkey, the government has so far failed to deliver assistance to several areas devastated by two major quakes registering 7.9 and 7.7 on the Richter scale, leaving thousands dead.

The government has not announced or commented on the Twitter ban. The government previously restricted social media access following disasters, terror attacks and protests.

Experts, politicians and people criticised the ban, saying that Twitter was the main source of communications for many people searching for survivors and victims as well as for local and nationwide aid campaigns.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, CHP said they will continue to use Twitter with VPN. “I told my friends in the field to use VPN for cooperation coordination. This insane … the government cut off social media communication,” Kilicdaroglu said.

His anger is shared by many people. “By restricting Twitter at this time, you are preventing or delaying help from reaching people who can reach it. You are killing people on purpose,” Ali Gul, a lawyer and activist, wrote on Twitter.

According to official figures, at least 8,574 people lost their lives, more than 49,000 people were injured and thousands of buildings were destroyed in the quakes.

President Erdogan visited quake-hit cities on Wednesday and asked for patience from people due to the government’s slow response.

Journalists, Opposition Slam Turkey’s Proposed ‘Censorship Law’

Journalists’ unions, human rights groups and opposition parties have condemned the Turkish government’s proposed disinformation law and deemed it a further blow to media freedom, naming it the “censorship law”.

“While the draft bill … claims to be about combating disinformation, the contents cited in its articles target pluralistic independent media atmosphere, and it has a massive potential for silencing alternate voices in society,” Gurkan Ozturan, coordinator of Media Freedom Rapid Response at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, told BIRN.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP, and its ally, the far-right Nationalist Movement Party, MHP, brought the law to parliament without losing any time after the new legislative year started.

Ozturan deemed the draft bill an attempt at “censorship”. “Such laws are unacceptable, and so is censorship. They defy the European Convention on Human Rights,” he said.

The draft law for the first time defines “spreading misinformation on purpose” as a crime. It will increase government control and censorship in media and social media platforms.

“No matter how much the governing alliance might claim that this is to guarantee information safety and point to European laws, the threats we already see appear to disprove these claims, moreover, the draft bill has nothing to do with the existing laws on similar subjects in Europe, except for a law in Greece that is not being implemented,” Ozturan added.

The proposed law introduces penalties for anyone who “publicly disseminates false information regarding internal and external security, public order and the general welfare of the country, in a way that breaches the public peace, simply for the purpose of creating anxiety, fear or panic among the population”.

“The purpose of introducing the disinformation law is so that no one can write about the corruption of the palace [of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan] and its company,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party said in his parliamentary speech.

Huseyin Yayman, AKP president of the Parliamentary Digital Media Commission, dismissed the criticism.

“We are making a regulation on disinformation. Blocking or restriction of social media is out of the question. The AKP  is a party that fights against censorship and bans,” he said, the pro-government Daily Sabah, reported.

Dozens of journalists and opposition MPs gathered outside parliament in Ankara on Tuesday, holding placards that read: “No to the law of censorship” and “Free press is a condition for democracy”.

“If this law is implemented in this form, there will be no freedom of press, expression and communication in our country,” said Kemal Aktas, chairman of the Turkish parliamentary reporters.

Under the proposed law, people who spread misinformation can be jailed for up to three years. If a court rules that a person spreads misinformation as part of an illegal organisation, the jail sentence will increase by 50 per cent.

Journalists can also be charged under the new law if they use anonymous sources to hide the identity of a person spreading “misinformation”.

The discussions and voting on the proposed law are expected to continue in the following days.

Albanian Journalists Gagged Over Organised Crime Case Leaks

Newsrooms in Albania received a gagging order on Thursday to stop publishing information about a major criminal case involving several organised crime groups, after the testimonies of two collaborators of justice that helped prosecutors issue some 32 arrest orders last month were leaked.

Prosecutors Doloreza Musabelliu, Altin Dumani and Behar Dibra underlined “the importance of the statements given by those two citizens and the fact that we are in the preliminary intensive investigation phase, and many investigative acts are being carried out,” as the reason for the gagging order.

“The statements of these citizens have proven value and are extremely important for the investigation. Due to this importance, and the need to have these statements covered by secrecy, it is necessary to order the protection of secrecy up to the conclusion of the preliminary investigations,” the prosecutors said.

Over the last few weeks, Albanian media have published dozens of news items about the statements of the two collaborators concerning several criminals suspected of murders and other crimes.

Albania’s penal code foresees jail sentences of up to three years for the publication of secret information by third parties, such as journalists. It also foresees jail sentences of up to six years when such secret information relates to protected witnesses.

This is not the first time that prosecutors in Albania issued gagging orders to the media. In 2019, after leaks exposed electoral crime and corruption, prosecutors issued a similar order.

But this was ignored by the media and was largely seen as an attempt to hide official failures to investigate political crimes.

Albania’s authorities organized a mass operation against organized crime on 19 May, following the statements of the collaborators. However, the most notorious bosses of the underworld weren’t found or seized, and remain on the run.

Montenegro’s Divided Govt Finally Silences Russian Media

Montenegro’s government on Friday finally suspended the broadcasting of Russian Today and Sputnik in line with European Union sanctions on Russia related to its war on Ukraine.

The government adopted the measures on Friday, more than five weeks after it joined EU sanctions on Moscow on March 1.

Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said the move covers a wide package of restrictions on Russian officials, banks, companies and media.

“I am satisfied with the government’s decision, as the majority of ministers understood that it was important for the state. Those measures will have an economic impact,” Abazovic told the media. “If we reduced everything to economic logic, we would have a dilemma. But this is political logic,” he added.

In supporting EU sanctions, the would-be EU member committed itself to ban on Russian overflight of its airspace and access to its airports. It also banned transactions with the Russian Central Bank and joined the SWIFT ban on seven Russian banks.

On March 2, the EU suspended the broadcasting of Sputnik and Russia Today in all member states, accusing the outlets of spreading disinformation and manipulating information about Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The Podgorica government has now suspended all broadcasting licenses or approvals for Russian sponsored media, prohibiting broadcasting by any means, such as cable, satellite, IP-TV, internet service providers, internet video-sharing platforms or applications.

Only seven of the 12 government ministers reportedly supported the measures, reflecting deep East-West divisions in the country.

Minister of Agriculture Aleksandar Stijovic abstained from voting while Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic was absent in Greece. Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Vesna Bratic, Health Minister Jelena Borovinic Bojovic and Minister of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism Ratko Mitrovic were also absent.

On Friday the US ambassador in Podgorica, Judy Rising Reinke, welcomed the government’s decision.

“It’s important to see a friend, partner and ally join EU sanctions, which are designed to undercut Russia’s ability to fund its inhumane, unjustified and unprovoked war on the people of Ukraine,” Reinke posted on Twitter.

But one of the leaders of the largest bloc in the ruling coalition, the pro-Russian Democratic Front’s Milan Knezevic, said the measures will damage the economy.

The Minister of Finance and Social Care, Milojko Spajic, said tourist income would drop due to the measures. “Every year around 23 per cent of tourists who come [here] are from Russia and Ukraine,” Spajic told television Vijesti.

Opinion in Montenegro is divided about Russia and its invasion of Ukraine. The country’s large ethnic Serbian community is traditionally sympathetic to Russia, while other communities are far less so. The smallest bloc in the government, Black on White, supports the EU sanctions, but the largest bloc, the Democratic Front, opposes them.

Censorship and Blackmail Accusations Rock Albania’s Top TV Station

An unknown person on Top Channel’s show Top Story’s Facebook page on Thursday sent shockwaves across Albania after claiming that the TV channel’s bosses had cancelled the airing of an important documentary entitled “The Oligarchs of the Urban Renaissance”.

“This #Investigation sheds light on abuses and corruption in town centre reconstructions carried over the last eight years,” the anonymous statement read.

“Top Story staff have been under pressure from the directors, starting from the way in which themes were dealt with to the firing of the show’s director,” it adds.

Shortly after, Top Channel issued a statement naming former director Endrit Habilaj as the author of the Facebook post, and accusing him of blackmail. The channel called the statement defamatory and said Habilaj had been fired for breach of ethics.

“Our legal team is preparing the documents and will forward them to the authorities to ascertain the legal responsibilities and damages that the individuals caused the company by using the profession and the show as a tool for extortion and threats, also misusing foreign donations,” the statement read.

It claimed that the doc was axed for breach of ethics.

“When the board analyzed the materials and observed serious ethical and professional breaches, it decided to not air this extortion, done in the name of two individuals who once worked for Top Channel but not in the interests of the truth,” the statement added.

Habilaj, who anchored the show for four years, responded by accusing the CEO and owner of Top Channel, Vjollca Hoxha, of a list of extortion campaigns against other businessmen and state officials.

He denied authoring the statement on the show’s Facebook page and dismissed claims that the canceled show was an act of blackmail.

“’Oligarchs of the Urban Resonance’ was not produced by me but by Esmeralda Keta, the winner of two EU Awards [on Investigative Journalism],” Habilaj said.

“This show was produced through an EU-funded project,” he added, listing several alleged acts of blackmail carried out by channel owner Hoxha.

Habilaj is also an entrepreneur who owns two companies whose stated activities are media production, marketing and media buying.

A number of businessmen in Albania have been targeted as “oligarchs” in reference to their alleged sway over the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Rama has claimed these “oligarchs” do not exist and has accused the media of using its own influence on public opinion to extort money from businesses.

Turkey Threatens to Jail Journalists Reporting Critically on Companies

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP, has submitted a new bill to parliament criminalizing critical news reports about companies.

According to the proposed law, journalists may be jailed for up to three years as well as face fines for having “deliberately created a report that could damage the reputation, trust and wealth of the company through the media”.

“Turkey’s ranking in press freedom and freedom of expression indexes has been showing a steady decline for years. Unfortunately, with steps taken like the most recent preparation to penalise journalists’ work citing the alleged protection of commercial images, it will take yet another hit,” Gurkan Ozturan, Media Freedom Rapid Response Coordinator at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, ECPMF, told BIRN.

“Journalists and journalism cannot be punished [for such reports]; it is not a crime,” he added.

Ozturan said the bill proposes to stiffen the protection of commercial entities by empowering them to lead strategic lawsuits against public participation, often known as SLAPPs, which are used increasingly to silence and target journalists.

According to the proposed law, the law will be applicable even if the name of the relevant company is not mentioned in the news report.

If private or public harm is done to the company as a result of the news report, the penalty may be increased further by one-sixth.

“While in the European Union, which the Turkish government aspires to be part of, there are steps to create protection for media freedom and journalists against such acts, Turkey seems to be heading in the opposite direction,” Ozurtan said.

“Also, as part of the same bill, there is provisionally going to be a reduction in the punishment for tax evasion,” Ozturan noted, saying the proposed law does not seem compatible either with the rules of the free market or with the principles of media freedom.

Erdogan’s government has been accused before of favouring certain private companies by delivering them large public tenders, multibillion construction projects and tax reductions.

The opposition says the new draft law clearly aims to protect those companies.

Turkey was ranked in 153th place out of 180 countries in 2021 in the latest press freedom index of the watchdog organisation Reporters Without Borders, RSF, which classifies the Turkish government’s control over media outlets as high.

According a recent report published by Association of Journalists, 241 journalists were put on trial and 115 physically attacked in Turkey in 2021.

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