The Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak reported this week that a controversial
law, Penal Code Article 301, is to be applied vigorously by Turkish
authorities against *Internet crimes* that include online gambling.
The legislation is apparently targeted on "indecent broadcasting
and online gambling", and the Information Technology Security
Agency will have the task of blocking broadcasts and offending sites
as defined by the Turkish Penal Code.
Restrictions are being introduced by the Code that amount to censorship
of the internet, claims the newspaper report, where people have hitherto
enjoyed Internet freedom to express their ideas in recent years. According
to the bill, ostensibly drawn up to combat child abuse, indecent broadcasts
and online gambling, one of the most important tasks of the Information
Technology Security Agency will be to obstruct broadcasts.
It appears that the manner in which this is to be achieved is through
court orders sought by the Agency following extensive monitoring of
suspected sites. The court orders will presumably be served on ISPs.
Legal action will also be instituted against site owners where these
can be reached.
Penal Code Article 301 is controversial because of its widening application
regarding Internet offences such as "Denigrating Turkishness,
the republic and the institutions and organs of the state," under
which many free thinkers including Nobel Prize winning novelist Orhan
Pamuk, have apparently been prosecuted.
Punitive measures in the Penal Code are tough:
Article 299 makes insulting the president a crime punishable by between
one and four years' imprisonment. If committed via the media then
add one third.
"Broadcasts" made over the internet in contravention
of Article 301 "Denigrating Turkishness, the republic, the institutions
and organs of the state," can attract sentences between
six months and three years in prison.