A woman who gave a street interview criticizing Turkey’s recent eight-day Instagram ban has been detained in the western city of İzmir.
The street interview in question was conducted by ‘Tüylü Mikrofon,’ a popular YouTube channel.
In the interview criticizing the Instagram ban, the woman said:
“If we abandon our parliamentary system in the 21st century and give the whole country to one man, he will use it like his father’s stable.”
Several days prior to the woman’s arrest, Turkey’s radio and television authority (RTÜK) had issued a statement warning content creators against posting content overtly critical of the Instagram ban, saying such street interviews constitute disinformation intended to manipulate the public:
“These street interviews which have become popular on social media channels have reached a level where they violate professional principles and ethics of the press, with the goal of manipulating public opinion.”
The woman interviewed by ‘Tüylü Mikrofon’ was reportedly brought to a courthouse in İzmir Monday morning (August 12), after which she was transferred to a nearby prison.
Instagram ban
On August 2nd, Instagram was banned in Turkey by authorities. Although not explicitly stated, the ban was believed to stem from the platform’s censorship of content related to the recent assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Access to the platform was restored in Turkey on August 10th after Turkish authorities came to an agreement with Instagram’s parent company, Meta.
Medyascope'un günlük e-bülteni
Andaç'a abone olun
Editörlerimizin derlediği öngörüler, analizler, Türkiye’yi ve dünyayı şekillendiren haberler, Medyascope’un e-bülteni Andaç‘la her gün mail kutunuzda.
While President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defended the ban, it was criticized by opposition politicians as well as legal experts, who argued that Turkey’s Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) had instituted the ban without approval from a criminal court.
Written/translated for Medyascope by Leo Kendrick
