Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!
Pix: Mavi Marmara ready to roll again
It was reported today that the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara is returning to Istanbul. The families of the Turks killed during the Israeli raid got together to hold a press conference, the IHH (charity organisation accused of having with links with terrorists) said in its website.
The ship has been released by the Israeli authorities and having undergone repairs is ready to form part of a new flotilla that will sail to Gaza on May 31, 2011. Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported that Israel has signalled she is ready to apologize and pay compensation.
It was through the Mavi Marmara episode that we were introduced to Hurriyet which carried the photos of the infamous knives fully visible whereas Reuters had cropped the weapons so that they were not seen.
As the Mavi Marmara saga unfolded, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been unhappy with Hurriyet’s more outspoken columnists for not toeing the government line and questioning the Turkish government’s stance and for not vilifying Israel for her role in the incident on the high seas.
“The atmosphere in Turkey is highly combustible and open to political exploitation. Photos of bashed and bleeding young Israeli commandos published in the leading newspaper, Hurriyet–thereby confirming Israel’s self-defense argument–elicited cries of “traitor” and threats.” (See ‘Tayyip Erdogan’s Dangerous Rhetoric‘/June 10, 2010)
Press freedom has been increasingly repressed under Erdogan.
The European Commission draft report released last month “underlined that freedom of expression and media in Turkey needs to be strengthened in law and in practice”.
“The proliferation of court cases against [Turkish] journalists is at the center of the EU’s warning on freedom of expression and the media. Thousands of reporters and editors are standing trial with regard to their coverage of the Ergenekon case, in which defendants are facing charges of plotting to create conditions for a military coup. The journalists are facing trial on charges of violating the secrecy of investigations and interfering with a fair trial under Articles 285 and 288 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which appear to have replaced the infamous Article 301 as the main threat against freedom of speech, following an amendment to the latter. Prosecution under Article 301 has almost stopped after permission from the justice minister was made compulsory to initiate a court case under the article. (see Media Association report)
And you thought Malaysian MSM is muzzled… Turkish reporters suffer worse censorship.
To read the full 2010 Turkey Progress Report, please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/
hartalmsm.wordpress.com 
It’s getting so that one really cannot distinguish in any real sense between Erdogan and Mahathir who
are very much two peas in a pod (pod as in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”)….
“Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported that Israel has signalled she is ready to apologize and pay compensation…”
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BUT (**YAWN**) WE WILL WAIT FIRST FOR ERDOGAN TO ISSUE REPARATIONS TO THE
ARMENIANS, GREEKS AND KURDS….