We listened to the experiences of Ankara Union Theater, which has been struggling with censorship and bans for fifty years during the coronavirus epidemic, when theaters had to close their doors. Representative of the Speak Up Platform, Egehan Deniz Koska, spoke with Gül Göker, one of the founders of Ankara Union Theatre
Both during and after the Kurdish peace initiative process, censorship became an ordinary process of filmmaking for Kurdish documentary movie-makers. Taner Tan wrote about the challange of cenorship faced by recent Kurdish documentaries
Ayşen Güven talked with names from different disciplines and several generations of theater on self-censorship in the theater scene
We talked about the censorship story of Kaos GL Magazine, one of the most rooted publications of the Turkish LGBTI+ movement, two issues of which were declared obscene in 2000 and 2006, with the Editor-in-Chief of that period, Umut Güner, and the lawyer of the Kaos GL Association, Hayriye Kara.
TV series on both digital platforms and TV channels often come to the fore with censorship. Ayşen Güven from Speak Up Platform spoke with TV screenwriters from Turkey whose works have been censored especially due to the portrayals of sexuality and sexual identities. The second of the two-part series will be with screenwriter Yelda Eroğlu
A lawsuit for annulment has been openned for Anadolu Kültür, of which human rights activist Osman Kavala is the founder and chairman of the board of directors, who has been held in prison despite the ECHR’s release decision. We talked to names that produced or got inspired in Anadolu Kültür, pointing out that for the first time in the history of the Republic, a lawsuit has been filed against a company on the grounds that “it carries out its activities similar to associations and foundations without profit”
We talked to the author of the book “Nasty Books: a Legal Criticism in the Context of Literary Works and Obscenity Crime”, A. Ozan Marakoğlu about the crime of obscenity and what kind of consequences this crime has in terms of freedom of expression
We talked with Abdullah Keskin, Editor-in-Chief of Avesta Publishing House. The publishing house has been subjected to various bans on their publications in the last two decades. Our conversation took us on a tour of how they navigate through book bans, their struggle with overt and invisible censorship practices, and the history of the publishing house
Netflix Turkey changed the rating for the series ‘Heartstopper’ from 13+ to 18+. The series is an adaptation of the comic book series by English author Alice Oseman
In this part of our article series, the opinion that it is possible to return to live performance concerts comes to the fore. Both Tonmaister Hünkar Çalışkan and musician Ufuk Şafak say that concerts can be held under healthier conditions than the conditions of political party congresses, and they want the necessary conditions to be met. One of the two names who have been rendered incapable of performing their profession for a long time is trying to make a living by working as a marketer and as a motorcycle courier