Sendika.Org advises Communications Minister Ahmet Arslan against restarting a wave of censorship against the news portal after accusing it of ‘providing a platform for child abuse
Sendika.Org advises Communications Minister Ahmet Arslan against restarting a wave of censorship against the news portal after accusing it of ‘providing a platform for child abuse.’ ‘Don’t make a fool of yourself at the parliamentary rostrum,’ Sendika.Org tells the minister
SENDİKA.ORG’UN YANITIDIR: SANSÜRÜNÜZÜ DE ÖZRÜNÜZÜ DE KABUL ETMİYORUZ! SENDİKA.ORG SUSMAYACAK!
“We closed Sendika.Org because it provided an opportunity for all sorts of things, including the sexual harassment of children, obscenity, prostitution and gambling. We haven’t closed it 60 times but 62 times. We closed it because it committed crimes against (Mustafa Kemal) Atatürk. We will continue to ban it.”
So said Communications Minister Ahmet Arslan in response to a parliamentary question from Republican People’s Party (CHP) MP Onursal Adıgüzel regarding the record number of closures of Sendika.Org.
We’re at a loss, however, to figure out where to even start in trying to respond to such absurdity. We haven’t been closed 60 or 62 times – we’re on our 62nd address. Just as we publish no content with any connection with the vices mentioned by the minister, we have also not been censored by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) or its predecessor, the Telecommunications Directorate, for any such reason.
In our 17 years of operations, the first time we were banned was on 25 July 2015, a month-and-a-half after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its majority in the 7 June elections. In response, the AKP refused to recognize the results and moved to rule the country through war and an atmosphere of pressure, banning access to our site as part of its related policies of censorship. The article used to censor us is Article 8/A, a provision that was legalized with technical sleight of hand and which contravenes the Turkish Constitution and European Court of Human Rights decisions.
As we were penning this response, Arslan was forced to apologize following prompting from CHP MP İbrahim Özdiş. His apology, however, was worse than the original crime.
“Article 8/A, which concerns the banning of access to Sendika.Org, is related to national security and public order,” the minister said this time. “But there are 62 more closures – those are the ones that are covered by the articles I listed.”
We repeat: We have been closed 61 times and in every instance, we have been closed with Article 8/A, which contravenes the Constitution. In every instance, we filed an objection at criminal courts of peace. When our appeals were rejected, we went to the Constitutional Court; our applications have now been waiting for two years. After being closed for the 49th time, we applied to the Guinness Book of World Records for the “news site that has been banned the most times but which has continued to operate.”
After this application, we again went with 61 separate files to the criminal courts of peace for the 61 bans; following the rejection of our applications, we went to the Constitutional Court. With the latter failing to provide an answer within an appropriate amount of time, we’re now heading to the European Court of Human Rights.
But we know that we’re not facing a technical or legal matter. It’s a matter merely of the enmity of a government that can only rule with lies and violence toward oppositional media channels that speak the truth. In short, it’s a matter of fascism.
Nevertheless, we still have a few things to say to the esteemed minister – who has no idea about what’s going on, who can’t defend the censorship that has occurred, who resorts to mudslinging in the absence of any ability to defend his actions and who will ultimately be called to account for his actions – regarding his statements and his comical apology. Sendika.Org was not banned because it “provided an opportunity for all sorts of things, including the sexual harassment of children, obscenity, prostitution and gambling.”
Sendika.Org was banned because it covered the story of AKP-backed groups like the Ensar Foundation that has been at the center of sexual harassment of children, the story of how this government has gambled with the lives of this country’s people with its war crimes in Middle East, the story of the corruption of the fathers of little gamblers who possess “a few little boats” and the story of legal changes that have opened the way to enmity toward women and the forced marriage of children with their rapists. Sendika.Org has been banned because it has given a voice to the societal struggles against all these attacks.
Sendika.Org was threatened during the Gezi Resistance. Sendika.Org was threatened for shining a light on the jihadist murderers and their protectors in government amid the wars in Turkey and the Middle East. Sendika.Org was threatened for reporting on what is happening in border towns. Sendika.Org was threatened for covering the democratic people’s resistance against the government of thieves and murderers – without looking at who was resisting or what side of the Euphrates Rivers they were on.
Sendika.Org was first banned after the 7 June elections. It was also banned before and after large-scale operations against the opposition. It was banned before and after the large-scale lynch attempts and massacres that occurred between the 7 June and 1 November elections of 2015.
Ahead of the tainted 16 April referendum to invest President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with unencumbered powers, it was banned nearly every day for being a voice for the “No” camp. After the vote, it was banned, its office was raided and one of its editors was detained for depicting the “Yes” camp as illegitimate.
But through it all, it was not silenced. It has also declared to friend and foe alike that it will not be silenced.
Minister Arslan, we will bring you to account for your mudslinging. We don’t accept your apology; we also don’t recognize your censorship. If it takes your fancy, close us down every day, but know that we will overcome the hurdles and continue to broadcast. We don’t accept your tyranny; instead, we will continue to shine a light on the crimes you have committed against the people, as well as on your graft, your plunder, your pillaging, your murders, the child rapists you have protected and your lies.
Here’s our advice to you: After a four-month break, don’t think about going down the road of randomly closing us down each day. And don’t make a fool of yourself by telling lies from Parliament’s rostrum in a vain effort to defend your censorship. Most of all, don’t bother getting involved in a fight with the truth.
You can’t hide the truth, and you can’t silence Sendika.Org!
Sendika.Org
