{"id":358,"date":"2020-12-04T13:24:18","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T10:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/?p=358"},"modified":"2020-12-04T13:24:38","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T10:24:38","slug":"three-more-books-deemed-obscene-freedom-to-choose-belongs-to-the-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/index.php\/three-more-books-deemed-obscene-freedom-to-choose-belongs-to-the-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Three more books deemed ‘obscene’: \u201cFreedom to choose belongs to the family\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the decision<\/a>\u00a0of the Board for the Protection of Minors from Obscene Publications of the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services published in the Official Gazette on 22 November 2020, three books have been deemed \u201cobscene\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Board decided, unanimously, that certain expressions in the books were capable of having a negative effect on the spiritual well-being and development of minors; therefore, the books in question had to be subject to the restrictions set forth in article four of the Law No. 1117.<\/p>\n

BOOKS DEEEMED \u201cOBSCENE\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0The book Baz\u0131 G\u00fcnler<\/em> (There Are These Days), written by Heinz Janisch, illustrated by\u00a0Helga Bansch\u00a0and translated into Turkish by\u00a0D\u00fcrrin Tun\u00e7<\/em>; published by Yap\u0131 Kredi K\u00fclt\u00fcr ve Sanat Yay\u0131nc\u0131l\u0131k<\/em>, 1st<\/sup> edition in February 2017, 2nd<\/sup> edition in February 2019<\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0The book Evde ve Uzakta <\/em>(Girl Missing), written by Christine N\u00f6stlinger and translated into Turkish by\u00a0Suzan\u00a0Gerid\u00f6nmez; published by G\u00fcn\u0131\u015f\u0131\u011f\u0131 Kitapl\u0131\u011f\u0131 Yay\u0131nc\u0131l\u0131k<\/em>, 1st<\/sup> edition in March 2011, 7th<\/sup> edition in March 2020<\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0The book Asi K\u0131zlara Uyumadan \u00d6nce Hikayeler 2<\/em> (Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 2), <\/em>written by Francesca Cavallo\u00a0and\u00a0Elena Favilli, translated into Turkish by Deniz \u00d6ztok; published by Hep Kitap \u2013 Teas Yay\u0131nc\u0131l\u0131k<\/em> in February 2018<\/p>\n

Suzan Gerid\u00f6nmez, the translator of the book Evde ve Uzakta <\/em>(Girl Missing), written by Christine N\u00f6stlinger and published by G\u00fcn\u0131\u015f\u0131\u011f\u0131 Kitapl\u0131\u011f\u0131 reacted to the decision to declare the book obscene. Stating that putting the book she translated under restricted books category \u201cis against freedom of thought and expression\u201d, Gerid\u00f6nmez said \u201cI consider this as a practice of systematic censorship that has been focusing mainly on children\u2019s and youth publications and that has been increasing in size and coverage most recently\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018FREEDOM TO CHOOSE BELONGS TO THE FAMILY\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a>\u00a0published at Evrensel,\u00a0Gerid\u00f6nmez said \u201cThe author writes, the translator translates and the publisher publishes. They are all committed to their respective professional principles which are protected by their relevant professional organizations. Freedom of thought and expression means that adults decide for themselves what to read. And when children under 18 are in question, the freedom and responsibility to choose belongs to the family. Parents are free to make their children read books that are compatible with the Turkish and Islamic culture, just like they are free to make their children read books that build bridges between cultures and encourage critical thinking. Indeed, interference in this freedom means nothing but interference in personal rights and freedoms\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018HER BOOKS ARE RECOMMENDED AT SCHOOLS\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drawing attention to the fact that Christine N\u00f6stlinger\u2019s books are actually recommended in many schools attached to the Ministry of National Education and that children love to read them, Gerid\u00f6nmez continued \u201cIn the notification, the word obscene is defined as \u2018against morals\u2019, \u2018vulgar\u2019 and \u2018filthy\u2019. Before I talk about how I feel, I am rather curious about how the teachers and parents whose free choices have been deemed \u2018filthy\u2019 feel and how they will react. And certainly, how and when the publishers, who still maintain their silence with a \u2018let the sleeping dogs lie\u2019 mentality, but who also have so many publications in their publishing programs that could be censored any moment with the same shady justifications, will react all together and loudly to defend the freedom of thought and free art\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n

WHAT DOES ARTICLE FOUR OF LAW NO. 1117 ENTAIL?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Article 4 \u2013\u201d(provision of Law No. 1117 dated 21\/6\/1927.) The list of names of books, journals and the periodical issues thereof that are examined and deemed to have a harmful effect on the spiritual well-being of minors by the Board shall be submitted to the Ministry of Education.\u201d<\/p>\n

A copy of this list shall be sent from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Justice and thuswise communicated to the public prosecutors\u2019 offices. Authors of the publications included in the list shall be notified by the highest-ranking civilian administrator\u2019s office. Upon such notification, authors shall be obliged to mark the first page of the unsold copies in their possession with the \u201csubject to restrictions\u201d stamp. Publications stamped in this way:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A) Cannot be sold in open display by fixed or mobile distributors,<\/li>\n
  2. B) Cannot be displayed in stores or on windows.<\/li>\n
  3. C) Cannot be transported openly from one location to another to be displayed; and orders for such publications cannot be received by distributors.<\/li>\n
  4. D) Cannot be announced by newspapers or journals or through posters and pamphlets or any other means.<\/li>\n
  5. H) Cannot be shown to minors by booksellers, given to them for free or in exchange of money and can by no means brought to schools.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services decides that three more books are \u201ccapable of having a harmful effect on the development of children\u201d due to certain expressions included in their content. Translator Suzan Gerid\u00f6nmez reacts to the decision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2753],"tags":[2801,2821,2820,2765],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cases","tag-obscene","tag-publisher","tag-translator","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":361,"href":"https:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susma24.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}