sPAT November 2016 Agenda: “Freedom of Expression in State of Emergency and the Situation of Media”

sPAT gathers on the first weekend of November with the general agenda: “Freedom of Expression in State of Emergency and the Situation of Media.”

When we look at the month we left behind, Turkey’s agenda is changing without break. The ongoing period of State of Emergency leads to Statutory Decrees enacted with publications on the Official Gazette, statements on the Presidential System as well as operations in Syria, whose dynamics change every day with negotiations both on military and on the bureaucratic scale. 

sPAT has gathered recently on the Presidential System. Since then, there were a lot of changes in balances in both the domestic and foreign politics; whereas it looks like this topic will continue its importance in the upcoming days as well.

The regime in Syria has started making announcements on operations conducted both on land and in air by coalition powers lead by the U.S., Russia and Turkey, on Mosul Operation and the following Raqqa Operation by regional alliances, as well as on who will fight on which side. sPAT has recently debated this issue and this agenda is likely to resurface in the following days with different dynamics.

Operations on Cumhuriyet Newspaper workers and writers are now in focus on the agenda. The situation of freedom of expression and media is a hot topic together with internet cuts, especially in the Eastern provinces, together with shutdowns of written, digital and visual media institutions in State of Emergency. 

sPAT gathers on the first weekend of November with the general agenda: “Freedom of Expression in State of Emergency and the Situation of Media.”

The time and location 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.