On Tuesday 11 June 2013, the Greek government announced its decision to shut down the country’s public broadcaster ERT and proceeded with taking all ERT television and radio channels off the air.

This came as a public consultation is under way to determine the terms under which a network provider will be selected to complete the country’s transition to digital television.

Radiobubble interviewed on Friday 14 June 2013 ERT senior technician Nikos Michalitsis, whose analysis of the call for expressions of interest for digital network providers bears ominous signs for the future of press freedom in Greece. We are posting the interview above.

You can listen to the full #rbnews international show here:http://international.radiobubble.gr/2…

Radiobubble is an independent citizen media community based in Athens. You can find out more about our work and support us here:http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/rad…

VIDEO @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=C5QnoXv4Fq

ΕΡΤ διαδήλωση,συναυλία,μουσική,πολιτισμός

VIDEO @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM6UYbPiALM&feature=em-uploademail

Live streaming from Brussels: http://greenmediabox.eu/live/internet-and-social-media-as-tools-of-freedom

Starts TODAY 16:00

On 18th June in the European Parliament, MEPs Paweł Zalewski and Amelia Andersdotter will host a joint conference on “Internet and Social Media as Tools for Freedom”. The event aims at presenting the role of the internet and social media in building civil society and fighting with oppression.

The conference will focus on the recent events in Turkey, the revolution in Tunisia that was part of the Arab Spring, and mass protests against ACTA in Poland. All of these events have one thing in common – their participants, unhappy with their governments actions decided to act and used the internet to organize themselves.

Idea of using technical tools in spreading ideas is not new. Internet is just the latest, more complex and efficient way of transmitting information and providing access to conversation and thus creating shared awareness. What most important is the internet and social media ability to serve as a space for discussion because this is how civil society and political opinions are formed. This helps to strengthen public sphere, gives more opportunities to engage in public speech and enables to undertake collective actions. Also the coordination role of social media cannot be overestimated.

Using Twitter and Facebook the protesters can organize in a very easy way that does not require any formal organizations, helps to save time, and does not involve big funds.
The basic truth is that communicative freedom is good for political freedom. And the internet provides means to support civil society and the public sphere which will cause change in a long run.

Application for the conference:

https://docs.google.com/a/student.uw.edu.pl/forms/d/1K4wYnatwgra3h1IDepaPkHkFLhGcU8UY0AXALjk3URI/viewform?pli=1

Agenda:

18 June 2013 16:00-18:00 European Parliament, Room ASP A5G3

16:00-16:15 Opening remarks by MEP Paweł Zalewski

16:15-17:30 Panel discussion
Lina Ben Mhenni (blogger Tunisian Girl)
Gürkan Özturan (blogger from Turkey)
Amelia Andersdotter MEP
Katarzyna Szymielewicz (President od Panoptykon Foundation)
Jarosław Lipszyc (President of Nowoczesna Polska Foundation)
Paweł Zalewski MEP

17:30-17:50 Q&A session

17:50-18:00 Conclusion – Paweł Zalewski MEP

18:00-18:30 opening of the exhibition „From samizdat to Internet”

18:30 reception

More information about speakers:

Paweł Zalewski
http://www.pawelzalewski.eu/en/about-me.html

Amelia Andersdottter
http://ameliaandersdotter.eu/about-amelia?language=en

Lina Ben Mhenni
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Ben_Mhenni

Gürkan Özturan

Katarzyna Szymielewicz
http://panoptykon.org/ludzie

Jarosław Lipszyc
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarosław_Lipszyc

People light candles for the victims of the protests at Taksim square, in Istanbul, early Saturday, June 15, 2013.

A letter from a friend:

Since these protests started, in addition to a political movement, I see and even deeply feel in them an amazing social revolution.

Due to its key geographical location, for centuries Turkey has been home to all types of religions and ethnic groups; in fact for centuries our true richness has been generated from these differences.

Any king, sultan or politician who has known how to embrace the differences of this country and put them in the front row has been successful and left a mark in history.

This time, since 2002 to be exact, our differences have been reflected but in a manipulated way and under the cover of democracy we have been selected and divided: the covered versus the uncovered, the Muslims versus the non-Muslims, the 50% and the others have been categorized and with time, while walking in the streets, the covered ladies have started staring at me with strange eyes and I don’t really know why but I do the same.

Since May 31^st, 2013, Turkish people have succeeded in gathering all our differences in an amazing harmony in one single point: the Gezi Park. I am lucky enough to witness this with my own eyes and heart again and again in an incredible way … Tolerance, love, respect, embracing all the religions, avoiding looking askance at people having different sexual preferences, smiling, peace … all of these have been suddenly caught in one interesting “momentum” all together. In such a fast way that we have not really fully understood what is deeply happening but we are just truly feeling it and getting together for days. We simply started acting with our true Turkish hearts!

It is exactly for this reason that back from work, I leave aside my Chanel bag and high heels for my backpack to go straight to Taksim Square.

And if I forget my gas mask I don’t mind at all and go with full confidence because I know that one of my sisters/brothers/friends I don’t know yet will help me out.

Yes, we are there to support this movement and to protect our rights, but I also walk and wander freely around Taksim by inhaling, with the utmost pleasure, the gas bombs to catch this very special momentum. And from now on, when I take a taxi the drivers are smiling and ask me how I am or when I walk in Istanbul I am happy to see in every corner “chapullers” and we warmly smile to each other.

Fear and anger have been swapped for tolerance and respect, making us what we are deeply and what has made us for centuries: TURKS.

My deep thanks to all friends who did or did not come to Taksim, ones following us from far, the people giving their support in any manner, the ones praying, the ones inhaling or not inhaling these bloody gas bombs, the ones injured for each and all of us, to my TURKEY standing up for and getting its rights!

Written by Figen Ayan

—-

This is what was happening in Gezi Park before the rioting police brutally raided the park:

Because I Love This Park

The Biggest Civil Uprising in the History of Turkey

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND DAILY UPDATES ON TURKEY:

OccupyGezi @ https://www.rebelmouse.com/OccupyGezi/

Show Support for Turkey and LIKE and SHARE this Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/Gezisolidarity

FOR DAILY LIVESTREAM UPDATES ON TURKEY AND WORLD EVENTS:

Occupy World News Network (OWNN) @ http://www.livestream.com/occupyworldnewsnow

Taksim, via radical.com.tr

Submitted by Turkish political analyst / blogger, Gürkan Özturan, from Istanbul

Here is a nightly report on the events in Turkey for 16-6-13:

Starting with the informatory talks between the government and the council of Taksim Solidarity (to save Gezi Park), the tense situation in Turkey had cooled down for a short period of time. Before the meeting took place, an AKP adviser declared that they wanted to invite several people from TS, but there were none who are Sunni Muslim and support a rightist ideology. Two witnesses had confirmed that Erdogan yelled and shouted at TS members during the meeting and did not care to listen to their demands. The demands were clear – Gezi would be saved from destruction, all those detained across the country for supporting Gezi would be released without further investigation, and there would be no attacks on peaceful protesters. Erdogan shunned these demands, stating that he had the support of voters behind him, but eventually only agreed to let a court decide whether the park remains a park; and even then, depending on the court decision they may take it to a plebiscite in Istanbul.

The TS council declared that the protests for Gezi Park should be ended; however most people protesting by now have been protesting the arbitrary police violence, the brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters, and the crimes committed by the riot police from excessive use of gas, chemicals, beatings on the streets as well as arbitrary arrests. The policing of civilians has come to the point of arbitrary search and arrest of individuals simply walking on the streets – several undercover policemen jumping on one person, grabbing bags and searching everywhere without a warrant or order papers.

When the Governor of Istanbul tried to soften the tone of interventions by making a public declaration that he has the support of the chief of police and the regional military commander, he stated that no peaceful protester is being touched, but that there are a few provocateurs (who turned out to be undercover policemen). The unnecessary show of force with the police and soldiers against civilians gave a clear vision of what the government’s decision would be, yet everyone expected – or hoped – that violence would stop and peaceful protests would continue to express the wish for a guarantee of democratic rights. The Governor also stated that no one’s life can be protected any longer if they insist on staying in the park and addressed mothers: “Come fetch your kids from the park, they are in danger.”

Mothers responded to this call and thousands came to protect their kids from police violence, building a peace chain around police. Under protection of their mothers, the “kids” continued with their peaceful protests through a piano concert, which later joined in with a philharmonic orchestra concert in Taksim Square. The very same piano would get confiscated as evidence for terrorist activities later on.

While everyone expected a cooling down and a call for restraint from the government, still hoping for a democratic process, AKP sent out riot police, tons of smoke and teargas, blast bombs, rubber bullets and many rifles, water cannons (with the addition of chemicals in the liquid), panzers, and this time military forces. When the attacks began on Gezi Park, so did nationwide protests against AKP’s tyranny. While all roads were blocked, protesters started a peace march towards Taksim, hoping to make a clear statement to the security forces that they are peaceful. Among them was even a totally naked man – to prove that he is “unarmed,” since the police claim everyone they shoot are armed terrorists.

The intervention started unannounced with blast bombs shot into the middle of the crowds by police, along with many gas bombs to limit protesters’ vision and breathing. When people tried to stop the panicking crowds, among whom were the disabled, old people and very little kids (as this is a park and on Saturday afternoon everyone was there), police started shooting gas bombs and blast bombs at the people. Thousands tried to take refuge in the Divan Hotel, a popular refuge since the first day of protests which was used as a hospital to treat the wounded. Later on police raided the hotel and gassed the rooms, detaining hundreds.

In other areas similar things happened and the military was called in to help as the police were ineffective against so many civilians. When soldiers joined in with the police to stop the peaceful protesters, people were still gathering in crowds across the country. The government declared that all the millions of people who support any protest against AKP are terrorists and will be treated as such. In the meantime, doctors who were on voluntary duty to treat the wounded were detained, journalists were not allowed in Taksim Square, and lawyers who represent any arrested protester were kept in custody.

As the world’s eyes were on the excessive force unleashed onto peaceful protesters, the Turkish media still kept silent, if not propagandizing for the government. The next day’s newspaper headlines focused on “how peaceful the police have been while kindly asking people to leave, until they had to intervene when protesters started shooting policemen.”

The media’s attitude is like that of a country under military rule; indeed this may be a coup organized by AKP with police and military support. Several journalists and editors who dared to write about the events were openly “warned” by the government to stop writing and issue an apology in order to prevent future “consequences.”  After all the newspapers ran the same headlines last week, this time Taraf – a prominent civilian newspaper always having an anti-militarist focus – was banned from publishing any further news of the Turkish secret service gathering information on tens of thousands of social-media users and filing them to hand over to the government when protests are done.

As threats against social-media users continue to emerge from AKP officials, there is a new law being drafted to criminalize any support of an opposition view of the government on the social media and imprison the “offender.” Hundreds of detainees are missing. Amnesty International declared that they want to know where were all those people taken.

PM Erdogan is holding a major rally in Istanbul today, for which the government supplied planes and buses to bring millions of AKP members and policemen from across country, and has one clear message: “The police are using water cannons, gas bombs… but in some countries they also use bullets. If protests do not end, my security forces know how to get rid of them.”

How Police Entered Gezi Park

MORE STORIES by Gürkan Özturan @ http://radicaldemocrat.blog.com

PREVIOUS UPDATES: 

Turkey: Resistance Park @  http://99getsmart.com/turkey-resistance-park/

Turkey: Regime Ignores International Community’s Outrage @ http://99getsmart.com/turkey-regime-ignores-international-communitys-outrage/

Turkey: The “Cleaning” of Taksim Square @ http://99getsmart.com/turkey-the-cleaning-of-taksim-square/

Turkey: Artists Accused of “Civilian Coup” @ http://99getsmart.com/turkey-artists-accused-of-civilian-coup/

Turkey: Erdogan’s Fictitious ‘Reality’ Persists in Speech to Paid ‘Supporters’ @http://99getsmart.com/turkey-erdogans-fictitious-reality-persists-in-speech-to-paid-supporters/

Green Spaces Keep Shrinking, Boycotts Expand and Police Complain about Working Conditions @ http://99getsmart.com/turkey-green-spaces-keep-shrinking-boycotts-expand-and-police-complain-about-working-conditions/

EU-Turkey Conference Minimizes Overt Police Brutality, Erdogan’s Ongoing Hypocricy & the Failure of Turkish Main Stream Media  @ http://99getsmart.com/turkey-eu-turkey-conference-minimizes-overt-police-brutality-erdogans-ongoing-hypocricy-the-failure-of-turkish-main-stream-media/

Nightly report from Turkey 07-06-13 @ http://99getsmart.com/nightly-report-from-turkey-07-06-13/

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND DAILY UPDATES ON TURKEY:

OccupyGezi @ https://www.rebelmouse.com/OccupyGezi/

Show Support for Turkey and LIKE and SHARE this Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/Gezisolidarity

FOR DAILY LIVESTREAM UPDATES ON TURKEY AND WORLD EVENTS:

Occupy World News Network (OWNN) @ http://www.livestream.com/occupyworldnewsnow

YES WE SCAN!

Introduction

The exposure of the Obama regime’s use of the National Security Agency to secretly spy on the communications of hundreds of millions of US and overseas citizens has provoked world-wide denunciations.  In the United States, despite widespread mass media coverage and the opposition of civil liberties organizations, there has not been any mass protest.   Congressional leaders from both the Republican and Democratic Parties, as well as top judges, approved of the unprecedented domestic spy program..  Even worse, when the pervasive spy operations were revealed, top Senate and Congressional leaders repeated their endorsement of each and every intrusion into all electronic and written communication involving American citizens.  President Obama and his Attorney General Holder openly and forcefully defended the NSA’s  the universal spy operations.

The issues raised by this vast secret police apparatus and its penetration into and control over civil society, infringing on the citizens freedom of expression, go far beyond mere ‘violations of privacy’, as raised by many legal experts.

Most civil libertarians focus on the violations of individual rights, constitutional guarantees and the citizen’s privacy rights.  These are important legal issues and the critics are right in raising them.   However, these constitutional–legal critiques do not go far enough; they fail to raise even more fundamental issues; they avoid basic political questions.

Why has such a massive police-state apparatus and universal spying become so central to the ruling regime?  Why has the entire executive, legislative and judicial leadership come out in public for such a blatant repudiation of all constitutional guarantees?  Why do elected leaders defend universal political espionage against the citizenry?  What kind of politics requires a police state?  What kind of long-term, large scale domestic and foreign policies are illegal and unconstitutional as to require the building of a vast network of domestic spies and a hundred billion dollar corporate-state techno-espionage infrastructure in a time of budget ‘austerity’ with the slashing of social programs?

The second set of questions arises from the use of the espionage data.  So far most critics have questioned the existence of massive state espionage but have avoided the vital issue of what measures are taken by the spymasters once they target individuals, groups, movements?  The essential question is:  What reprisals and sanctions follow from the ‘information’ that is collected, classified and made operational by these massive domestic spy networks?  Now that the ‘secret’ of all-encompassing, state political spying has entered public discussion, the next step should be to reveal the secret operations that follow against those targeted by the spymasters as a ‘risk to national security’.

The Politics behind the Police State

The fundamental reason for the conversion of the state into a gigantic spy apparatus is the nature of deeply destructive domestic and foreign policies which the government has so forcefully pursued.  The vast expansion of the police state apparatus is not a response to the terror attack of 9/11.  The geometrical growth of spies, secret police budgets, and the vast intrusion into all citizen communications coincides with the wars across the globe.  The decisions to militarize US global policy requires vast budgetary re-allocation , slashing social spending to fund empire-building; shredding public health and social security to bailout  Wall Street.  These are policies which greatly enhance profits for bankers and corporations while imposing regressive taxes on wage and salaried workers

Prolonged and extended wars abroad have been funded at the expense of citizens’ welfare at home.  This policy had led to declining living standards for many tens of millions of citizens and rising dissatisfaction.  The potential of social resistance as evidenced by the brief “Occupy Wall Street” movement which was endorsed by over 80% of the population.  The positive response alarmed the state and led to an escalation of police state measures.  Mass spying is designed to identify the citizens who oppose both imperial wars and the destruction of domestic welfare; labeling them as ‘security threats’ is a means of controlling them through the use of arbitrary police powers.  The expansion of the President’s war powers has been accompanied by the growth and scope of the state spy apparatus:  the more the President orders overseas drone attacks, the greater the number of his military interventions, the greater the need for the political elite surrounding the President to increase its policing of citizens in anticipation of a popular backlash.  In this context, the policy of mass spying is taken as ‘pre-emptive action’.  The greater the police state operations, the greater the fear and insecurity among dissident citizens and activists.

The assault on the living standards of working and middle class Americans in order to fund the endless series of wars, and not the so-called ‘war on terror’, is the reason  the state has developed massive cyber warfare against the US citizenry.  The issue is not only a question of a violation of individual privacy: it is fundamentally an issue of state infringement of the collective rights of organized citizens to freely engage in public opposition to regressive socio-economic policies and question the empire.  The proliferation of permanent bureaucratic institutions, with over a million security ‘data collectors’, is accompanied by tens of thousands of ‘field operators’, analysts  and inquisitors acting arbitrarily to designate dissident citizens as ‘security risks’ and imposing reprisals according to the political needs of their ruling political bosses.  The police state apparatus has its own rules of self-protection and self-perpetuation; it has its own linkages and may occasionally compete with the Pentagon.  The police state links up with and protects the masters of Wall Street and the propagandists of the mass media – even as it (must) spy on them!

The police state is an instrument of the Executive Branch acting as a vehicle for its arbitrary prerogative powers.  However on administrative matters, it possesses a degree of ‘autonomy’ to target dissident behavior.  What is clear is the high degree of cohesion, vertical discipline and mutual defense, up and down the hierarchy.  The fact that one whistle-blower, Edward Snowden, emerged from the hundreds of thousands of citizen spies is the exception, the lone whistle blower, which proves the rule:  There are fewer defectors to be found among the million-member US spy network than in all the Mafia families in Europe and North America.

The domestic spy apparatus operates with impunity because of its network of powerful domestic and overseas allies.  The entire bi-partisan Congressional leadership is privy to and complicit with its operations. Related branches of government, like the Internal Revenue Service, cooperate in providing information and pursuing targeted political groups and individuals.  Israel is a key overseas ally of the National Security Agency, as has been documented in the Israeli press (Haaretz, June 8, 2013).  Two Israeli high tech firms (Verint and Narus) with ties to the Israeli secret police (MOSSAD), have provided the spy software for the  NSA and this, of course, has opened a window for Israeli spying in the US against Americans opposed to the Zionist state.  The writer and critic, Steve Lendman points out that Israeli spymasters via their software “front companies” have long had the ability to ‘steal proprietary commercial and industrial data” with impunity .  And because of the power and influence of the Presidents of the 52 Major American Jewish organizations, Justice Department officials have ordered dozens of Israeli espionage cases to be dropped. The tight Israeli ties to the US spy apparatus serves to prevent deeper scrutiny into its operation and political goals – at a very high price in terms of the security of US citizens.  In recent years two incidents stand out:  Israeli security ‘experts’ were contracted to advise the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security in their investigation and  ‘Stasi-like’ repression of government critics and environmental activists (compared to ‘al Queda terrorists’ by the Israelis) – the discovery of which forced the resignation of OHS Director James Powers in 2010.    In 2003, New Jersey governor, Jim McGreevy appointed his lover, an Israeli government operative and former IDF officer, to head that state’s ‘Homeland Security Department and later resigned, denouncing the Israeli, Golan Cipel, for blackmail in late 2004.  These examples are a small sample illustrating the depth and scope of Israeli police state tactics intersecting in US domestic repression.

The Political and Economic Consequences of the Spy State

The denunciations of the mass spy operations are a positive step, as far as they go.  But equally important is the question of what follows from the act of spying?  We now know that hundreds of millions of Americans are being spied on by the state.  We know that mass spying is official policy of the Executive and is approved by Congressional leaders.  But we have only fragmented information on the repressive measures resulting from the investigations of “suspect individuals”.  We can assume that there is a division of labor among data collectors, data analysts and field operatives following up “risky individuals and groups”, based on the internal criteria known only to the secret police.  The key spy operatives are those who devise and apply the criteria for designating someone as a “security risk”.  Individuals and groups who express critical views of domestic and foreign policy are “a risk”; those who act to protest are a “higher risk”;  those who travel to conflict regions are presumed to be in the “highest risk” category, even if they have violated no law.  The question of the lawfulness of a citizen’s views and actions does not enter into the spymasters’ equation; nor do any questions regarding the lawfulness of the acts committed by the spies against citizens.  The criteria defining a security risk supersede any constitutional considerations and safeguards.

We know from a large number of published cases that lawful critics, illegally spied upon, have subsequently been arrested,  tried and jailed – their lives and those of their friends and family members shattered.  We know that hundreds of homes, workplaces and offices of suspects have been raided in ‘fishing expeditions’.  We know that family members, associates, neighbors, clients, and employers of “suspects” have been interrogated, pressured and intimidated.  Above all, we know that tens of millions of law abiding citizens, critical of domestic economic and overseas war policies, have been censored by the very real fear of the massive operations carried out by the police state. In this atmosphere of intimidation, any critical conversation or word spoken in any context or relayed via the media can be interpreted by nameless, faceless spies as a “security threat” – and one’s name can enter into the ever growing secret lists of “potential terrorists”.  The very presence and dimensions of the police state is intimidating.  While there are citizens who would claim that the police state is necessary to protect them from terrorists – But how many others  feel compelled to embrace their state terrorists just to fend off any suspicion, hoping to stay off the growing lists?  How many critical-minded Americans now fear the state and will never voice in public what they whisper at home?

The bigger the secret police, the greater its operations.  The more regressive  domestic economic policy,  the greater the fear and loathing of the political elite.

Even as President Obama and his Democratic and Republican partners boast and bluster about their police state and its effective “security function”, the vast majority of Americans are becoming aware that fear instilled at home serves the interest of waging imperial wars abroad; that cowardice in the face of police state threats only encourages further cuts in their living standards.   When will they learn that exposing spying is only the beginning of a solution? When will they recognize that ending the police state is essential to dismantling the costly empire and creating a safe, secure and prosperous America?

Submitted by Turkish political analyst / blogger, Gürkan Özturan, from Istanbul

Here is a nightly report on the events in Turkey for 13-6-13:

As one walks from Harbiye towards Taksim, the crowds get thicker and thicker. When strolling the streets, from the sides you see people in groups of dozens with their gasmasks, goggles, helmets, and different flags in many colors. In the middle of this colorful opposition there are dozens of thinner-addicts that all  shout the same thing: “Don’t go to Taksim, you will get gassed! You are going to your certain death! Stay away from Gezi, stay home be safe!” Normally it is common to see one or two of these addicts around the streets, and they never shout out loud like that – let alone shouting the same thing. In hundreds of meters, passing by these guys the crowds get even thicker, with people selling masks and helmets by the side of the road. Once you reach to the park and enter “Taksim Commune,” you realize the great feeling of solidarity, hearing the songs of thousands of people, and unified resistance of all colors.

While the Resistance Park is very peaceful and festive with all the high spirits of solidarity, in the meantime a delegation supposedly representing the Gezi Park – but who in fact have almost nothing to do with the park or occupation movement – assembled to meet with PM Erdogan. Among them were names the general public associates with nationalist propaganda or apolitical fashion. These “representatives” who had nothing to do with the park or resistance against police brutality stated their opinion on events, and in the end the government officials suggested that there should be a referendum on whether Istanbulites want a park or an artillery barracks and shopping mall.

About the referendum, most of the protesters questioning the government’s sincerity in resolving the park issues, let alone all the crimes against civilians committed throughout the last few weeks. They reminded people that it was Erdogan himself who suggested that human rights and social liberties can never be put on referendum, in 2009 at an AKP Rally. The court decision is clear: Gezi Park cannot be demolished. But the government dictates that popular-vote support for the governing party gives them enough legitimacy to disregard the court’s decision. The protesters remain on the side of rule of law and want to see it prevail.

In the international arena as world leaders, foreign governments, supra- and international organizations are condemning the infringement of basic human rights and the excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, the government declared that they would not recognize the EU Parliament’s declarations as legitimate. The Turkish EU minister even went so far as to suggest that the EU is actually bringing itself into shade by falling into the trap of an international conspiracy to topple the Turkish economic miracle. Still, looking at events from an economic angle, the Turkish government is very focused on conspiracy theories and shows signs of fear.

The government-leaning media keep exaggerating the invented claims made by AKP members that religious people are being attacked by protesters, while devout Muslim organizations condemn these claims as they say these reports simply do not reflect reality. While turbaned girls use social media to deliver the message that they are fine and safe among all other groups, and everyone keeps an open mind towards all others, it is only a certain group of AKP fans that do not get the message.

Already there are a few people resigning from the governing party, and members cancelling their memberships. There are also some people who are family members of AKP deputies, who – without revealing their names – support protesters and block the roads in front of police buses.

The issue has of course gone well beyond Gezi Park now and protesters, while denying any party affiliation, demand a new political culture free of hatred, lies, provocative leaders and demagogues in the name of Turkey’s future. The constitutional debates that have been blocked by all parties seem to be an urgent necessity today; perhaps there could be one like the Icelandic people are having over their constitution.

It is obvious now that people do not want any part of a government official would say, as Erdogan said on April 23^rd to the kid who assumed the PM’s duties for one day: “Now that you are the Prime Minister you can slaughter and hang whomever you wish.” This movement is definitely bringing more tolerance into mainstream culture in Turkey, which has been divided by many issues throughout decades due to politicians’ intrigues. Now that they have discovered the potential of the social movement, the defense of the park can lead to a truly democratic transformation of the country, if it does not get interrupted.

However, while the heartbeat on the streets reveals hopeful echoes for future, the higher authority for TV and radio broadcasts declared that four TV stations will be heavily fined, and one – Hayat TV – will be banned from broadcast for discussing the police violence against civilians. While traditional media platforms are already under severe pressure to stay in line with the government’s perspective, now the social media law in the penal code seems to be threatening the future of freedom of speech, the right to information and the basic right to communicate freely. Against all odds and discouragements from the government, the humanist protesters still keep up their passive resistance in peace and solidarity.

MORE STORIES by Gürkan Özturan @ http://radicaldemocrat.blog.com

PREVIOUS UPDATES: 

Turkey: Regime Ignores International Community’s Outrage @ http://99getsmart.com/turkey-regime-ignores-international-communitys-outrage/

Turkey: The “Cleaning” of Taksim Square @ http://99getsmart.com/turkey-the-cleaning-of-taksim-square/

Turkey: Artists Accused of “Civilian Coup” @ http://99getsmart.com/turkey-artists-accused-of-civilian-coup/

Turkey: Erdogan’s Fictitious ‘Reality’ Persists in Speech to Paid ‘Supporters’ @http://99getsmart.com/turkey-erdogans-fictitious-reality-persists-in-speech-to-paid-supporters/

Green Spaces Keep Shrinking, Boycotts Expand and Police Complain about Working Conditions @ http://99getsmart.com/turkey-green-spaces-keep-shrinking-boycotts-expand-and-police-complain-about-working-conditions/

EU-Turkey Conference Minimizes Overt Police Brutality, Erdogan’s Ongoing Hypocricy & the Failure of Turkish Main Stream Media  @ http://99getsmart.com/turkey-eu-turkey-conference-minimizes-overt-police-brutality-erdogans-ongoing-hypocricy-the-failure-of-turkish-main-stream-media/

Nightly report from Turkey 07-06-13 @ http://99getsmart.com/nightly-report-from-turkey-07-06-13/

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND DAILY UPDATES ON TURKEY:

OccupyGezi @ https://www.rebelmouse.com/OccupyGezi/

Show Support for Turkey and LIKE and SHARE this Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/Gezisolidarity

FOR DAILY LIVESTREAM UPDATES ON TURKEY AND WORLD EVENTS:

Occupy World News Network (OWNN) @ http://www.livestream.com/occupyworldnewsnow

Since June 11, Greece has become a scandalous “cultural exception” in Europe: The country no longer has public radio and television.

The Greeks, already brought to their knees by the financial crisis, are stunned by the brutal suddenness of the measure, which reminds them of the period when they lived under a dictatorship, and are mobilizing in large numbers.

This decision is in direct contradiction with the European treaties, which hold that the existence of a public broadcasting service is a determining criterion of the health of democracy in a country. The shutdown is one more step in the process of dismantling of a country under the austerity plans imposed by the EU and the Troika.

In solidarity with the Greek people, Mediapart is organizing an event on Tuesday, June 18 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Artists, journalist, and Greek and French intellectuals will be there to speak and to defend the necessity for a public broadcasting service that is independent of political or other powers.

On this occasion, Edwy Plenel, in the name of Mediapart, will issue a citizens’ appeal in the name of the Europe that stands for culture and freedom of information.

The complete, detailed program will be sent out on by Monday, June 17. The event is free and open to the public.

Translated by SnakeArbusto

Greek unions organized a 24 hour strike in support of ERT – Photo by Giorgos Panagakis

“No Signal.” That was the last message to be broadcast on June 11 at 11:00 PM (local time) by the Greek public broadcasting network ERT. Broadcasting has ended. The radical – and unprecedented – measure was taken without forewarning just as the leaders of Greece’s “Troika” creditors (EU-ECB-IMF) are in Athens.

Public broadcasting belongs to the many government entities that were to be restructured or merged under the Memorandum of Understanding between Greece and its lenders. According to the unions, in closing ERT, the government is meeting the objective imposed on it by Greece’s creditors – eliminating 2,000 public-sector jobs by the end of June – with one stroke of the pen. It is justifying its decision by citing low ratings for the public radio stations and television channels, and also their lack of financial resources, in particular from advertising.

The government did say that the public entity would re-open someday in another form, with a drastically reduced workforce. Government spokesman Simos Kédikoglou revealed the details of a proposed law on the creation of a “new Greek radio, Internet, and television” to be called Nerit S.A. and which would begin operation by the end of August, with 1,200 employees. In the meantime, the current workforce of 2,656 will receive compensation and will be allowed to apply for jobs with the new company.

“They’re saying they’ll re-open in September. But in Greece, nothing’s more permanent than ‘temporary’,” ERT radio General Manager Dimitris Papadimitriou observed.

An explosive economic measure 

The unions have called on Greeks to take to the streets to protest the shutdown. The protest is supported by certain personalities in Greek public life who are dependent on Greece’s public broadcasting – starting with Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens, Primate of the Greek Church, who immediately joined the movement along with the majority of the priests. “It has to be understood that only public television and radio broadcast the Mass on Sunday morning, every day of Holy Week, the week before Easter, at Christmas and on August 15 (the feast of the Dormition or Assumption). It provided hope and comfort for those among the faithful who are unable to go to church, as well as to Greeks living abroad. Remember that there are as many Greeks abroad as in Greece itself, and the Mass broadcast was a little piece of Greece for them,” the Archbishop said.

Orthodox Catholicism is the state religion in Greece, and 90% of the country’s population, according to official figures, is Orthodox. Religious broadcasts are carried on all four public channels, including the international one.

Greeks in Venezuela, the USA, and Japan called with messages of support for the personnel. One of them said on the air, just before programming was shut down, that the national public network was the only way for him not to forget the language of his native country and be able to observe religious celebrations in his home.

Several hundred persons were still assembled late Wednesday afternoon in front of ERT’s headquarters in Athens’s northeastern suburbs. A solidarity concert was planned for Wednesday evening.

Sophie Rosenzweig / ARTE Journal

Translated by SnakeArbusto

Status of Greek public broadcasting:

Edition spéciale : ARTE Journal diffusé en grec:

ERT: On the Edge:

Thousands of Greek showing solidarity outside the ERT building in Athens:

Published: Wed. Jun 12 12:00:00 CEST 2013

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