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Turkey charges pianist Fazil Say over Twitter posts

63 points| ozgune | 14 years ago |nytimes.com | reply

45 comments

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[+] tjic|14 years ago|reply
It can happen here.

I made a joke over Twitter and the cops seized a $15k firearm collection and I racked up $15k in legal bills.

No warrants, no charges, no actual investigation. Lots of tricks, lies to my lawyer, backtracking, etc.

I'd love to have my day in court because the joke was taken out of context from a long discussion of Just War Theory (which was being read and enjoyed by dozens of people, including some First Ammendment lawyers), but even in the US the authorities have the ability to leave you hanging in limbo for years.

Footnote:

http://borepatch.blogspot.com/2011/01/i-am-tjic.html

[+] dr42|14 years ago|reply
If you threaten a US senator, and you have stockpiled this many weapons, I think you really should have seen this one coming.
[+] cahteinp138|14 years ago|reply
It reminds me of the Fabrice Muamba case [1]:

A student has been jailed for 56 days for posting offensive comments on Twitter about the on-pitch collapse of Bolton Wanderers footballer Fabrice Muamba.

District judge John Charles told Stacey: "It was racist abuse via a social networking site instigated as a result of a vile and abhorrent comment about a young footballer who was fighting for his life. At that moment, not just the footballer's family, not just the footballing world but the whole world were literally praying for his life. Your comments aggravated this situation.

How can a tweet aggravate someone's medical condition beats me.

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17515992

[+] Tichy|14 years ago|reply
Scary, because Turkey aims to join the EU. I hope they won't be accepted as long as such things are going on.

Sadly I think some countries that are dominated by radical Christians have already joined :-(

[+] narzac|14 years ago|reply
Turkey is in a transition process which will turn it into an islamic piece of shit country like Iran. Secular holly crap :) From the perspective of current prime minister of Turkey Atheist = Thinner-addict
[+] mahmud|14 years ago|reply
I know Islam is the cry-baby of organized religions, but the Turkish state (specially the secular military junta tha runs the show) uses these sort of thought crimes to both silence opposition, and also to pander to the right-wing factions.
[+] ozgune|14 years ago|reply
This has nothing to do with the secular military. In fact, the current pro-Islamic administration has imprisoned more than 10% of the generals in the military (trial ongoing for four years); and recently started "cracking down" on liberal journalists, NGOs, artists, professors, and so forth. This trial seems to be a continuum of those crack downs.
[+] tomjen3|14 years ago|reply
Actually Christianity is the crybaby of religions.

Islam prefers violence (to the extend a religion can prefer anything).

[+] utku_karatas2|14 years ago|reply
The "silenced opposition" in Turkey is barely different from a terrorist organization. And most of that opposition is somehow soldiers. High Officers with great clout in the army and we're talking about an army with a habit of coup d'etats every 10 year.
[+] baby|14 years ago|reply
I thought Turkey was a secular country?
[+] bergie|14 years ago|reply
Turkey is secular by constitution, but the ruling AK party is Islamist.
[+] asto|14 years ago|reply
Is there such a thing as a Muslim dominated country that's secular?
[+] aurora72|14 years ago|reply
I'm a citizen of Turkey and in this lovely country the religion has often been used as a tool for achieving secular aims. That's just another example of it.
[+] asto|14 years ago|reply
Turkey and its people look really nice on TV shows/documentaries! It sucks that your government is the way it is; anybody who values their freedom and exercises their right to free speech against anybody/anything would be too scared to visit regardless of how much they'd like to experience your culture first hand. (me included)
[+] tigerweeds|14 years ago|reply
when did this happen? circa 1500 A.D.? oh, wait...
[+] J3L2404|14 years ago|reply
I may hate what you say but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it.
[+] soc88|14 years ago|reply
He's an atheist, so nothing wrong about it for those in 'MURICA.
[+] hellerbarde|14 years ago|reply
Nobody has the right to never be offended. Y u no understand that, Turkey?
[+] utku_karatas2|14 years ago|reply
Flagged. Every country has its own laws. News at Eleven.

This guy always had provocative speeches just for the sake of being provocative and the center of attention. More debatable and provocative stuff is circulated by columnists in everyday papers. It's just this guy is a little bit more prolific and annoying. Probably some district prosecutor just took a jab.