sPAT February 2016 Agenda: Freedom of Thought, Freedom of Expression, and Media in Turkey

In the light of this and developments alike, sPat has determined its general agenda for February 2016 as “Freedom of thought, freedom of expression; and media in Turkey.”

The evaluation of freedom of thought and expression in Turkey is highly debated in the last year. International reports launched are important parts of the agenda.

Petitions launched by academics and different social groups, debates on these petitions, administrative and legal investigations, life sentence claims against Erdem Gül and Can Dündar, channels being forced to broadcast documentaries; all of them are ongoing topics of discussion.

The MEDIA is another important subtopic of freedom of expression. Media freedom in Turkey, its merit of ethical values and its relations with politics has always been under debate. In subtopics which reflect on the common denominator reports of most meetings held by sPAT as well (Ongoing clashes and its reflections on society, International relations and terror, Turkey after elections, Electoral declarations and 10 demands, On which basis the culture of violence grows in society?, Islam, terror and the increasing Islamophobia in Europe, Government and parallel structures, Security and the respectability of judicature, Alevi initiative, Internal security law, Work safety after Soma) freedom of expression, security, freedom of information and governmental security have been and are still being debated.

Even at least one debate point to an important debate when the right to information of citizens are considered.

In the light of this and developments alike, sPat has determined its general agenda for February 2016 as “Freedom of thought, freedom of expression; and media in Turkey.”

The time and place of the meetings are as indicated below.

Information on the meetings:

In case there is more than one person representing the same organization, only one of those representatives can take the floor at once. The time periods indicated below may be increased or decreased as long as all participants agree on the change and the flow of the meeting is not disrupted.

In our meetings, special guests speak about the general agenda for 10 minutes following the introduction video presented at the beginning of each meeting. After the special guests, the turn of speech is given first to Non-Governmental Organizations for 5 minutes each, then to Political representatives for 5 minutes each. Once the first round is completed, either the second round, or a question-answer session beings; according to the number of attendance and to the common preferences of the participants. In the Q/A session, political party representatives have 2 minutes to answer the questions asked by the civil society in 15 seconds. In this session, the special guests may be asked questions as well. The same format is applied for the local agenda as well, and the meeting concludes.