'Regulation on Internet Media Must be Made Public'

The Alternative Information Association criticized an amendment of the Press Law regarding the internet media. The association warned that the new regulation bears the risk of taking the internet under control. According to the association, the work on the draft bill should be made public.

In a statement made by Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç on 5 November, he announced the preparations for a regulation regarding the internet media as part of the Press Law (No.5187). The draft is anticipated to pass into law in January 2012.

Arınç declared that the draft bill was being prepared in co-operation with associations related to the internet media.

The politician explained, "The people working for these portals will hold the yellow press card. The portals will probably benefit from advertising revenues. Whatever the terms newspaper and reporter mean in periodicals or the press, whatever conditions are required for the press card and however the advantages it provides will be used - the reprimands and sanctions of the Press Law will all be valid for the news portals in the internet".

"Draft bill bears risk of being applied to entire field of internet publications"

The draft bill specifies an internet news site as "a temporary publication that presents news or comments with audio and visual contents in the internet environment as defined by Law No.5651 on Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by means of Such Publication"

The Alternative Information Association said in an announcement that the draft bill that is based on this definition bore the risk of being easily applied to the wide field of internet publications that could not be limited to electronic newspapers but also included the social media. Furthermore, the association expressed their concern that the draft bill was designed within the scope of Law No.5651 which caused the closure of many internet sites in the past.

The association criticized that the draft bill has not been presented to the public yet and that only certain associations were involved in the process. The Alternative Information Association urged the government to announce the regulation to the public and carry out the work on it in a transparent manner. (NV/VK)