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February 06, 2014

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan talks to the media in Istanbul February 3, 2014. Dozens of their colleagues are in prison or on trial, thousands of faceless opponents hound them on Twitter, and phone calls from government officials warn them over their coverage - all hazards of the trade for Turkey's journalists. Government critics who refuse to be muzzled can find themselves sacked. Reuters pic, February 6, 2014. Turkish MPs late yesterday adopted new Internet legislation roundly criticised as a fresh assault by Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan on freedom of expression, access to information and investigative journalism.

The proposals come amid parallel moves by Erdogan to push through contentious judicial reforms as he fights to keep the lid on a deeply damaging corruption probe entangling some of his closest allies.

After hours of debate, during which opposition MPs blasted the bill as 'censorship', the measures were adopted in the chamber, where Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) dominates with 319 of the 550 seats.

The bill extends what are already hefty Internet curbs in place under a controversial 2007 law that earned Turkey equal ranking with China as the world's biggest web censor according to a Google transparency report published in December.

The text notably permits a government agency, the Telecommunications Communications Presidency (TIB), to block access to websites without court authorisation if they are deemed to violate privacy or with content seen as 'insulting'.

Yaman Akdeniz, law professor at Bilgi private university in Istanbul, said the powers given to the TIB were 'Orwellian'.

This body will also be able to request users' communications and traffic information from hosting providers obliged to retain up to two years' worth of data without a court order, Akdeniz told AFP.

The measures, Akdeniz said, will "move Turkey away from the European Union in terms of Internet policy, perhaps a few steps closer to China", where the web is heavily censored by the communist authorities.

At the start of the debate, opposition lawmaker Hasan Oren had harsher words, comparing Erdogan to Hitler.

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