Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 32759
Freedom of Media, Democracy and Gezi Park

Authors: Emine Tirali

Abstract:

This article provides a conceptual framework of the freedom of media and its correlation with democracy. In a democracy, media should serve the publics’ right to know and reflect human rights violations and offer options for meaningful political choices and effective participation in civic affairs. On that point, the 2013 events at Gezi Park in Turkey are a good empirical example to be discussed. During the events, when self-censorship was broadly employed by mainstream Turkish media, social media filled the important role of providing information to the public. New technologies have made information into a fundamental tool for change and growth, and as a consequence, societies worldwide have merged into a single, interdependent, and autonomous organism. For this reason, violations of human rights can no longer be considered domestic issues, but rather global ones. Only global political action is an adequate response. Democracy depends on people shaping the society they live in, and in order to accomplish this, they need to express themselves. Freedom of expression is therefore necessary in order to understand diversity and differing perspectives, which in turn are necessary to resolve conflicts among people. Moreover, freedom of information is integral to freedom of expression. In this context, the international rules and laws regarding freedom of expression and freedom of information – indispensable for a free and independent media – are examined. These were put in place by international institutions such as the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the European Union, which have aimed to build a free, democratic, and pluralist world committed to human rights and the rule of law. The methods of international human rights institutions depend on effective and frequent employment of mass media to relay human rights violations to the public. Therefore, in this study, the relationship between mass media and democracy, the process of how mass media forms public opinion, the problems of mass media, the neo-liberal theory of mass media, and the use of mass media by NGOs will be evaluated.

Keywords: Freedom of expression, democracy, public opinion, self-censorship.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1123895

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1639

References:


[1] Mendel, Toby, Freedom of Information, A Comparative Legal Survey, Unesco, Paris, 2008, Foreword, p.1.
[2] Cocca, A. A. “The Right to Communicate”, Proceedings of the Colloguy of the Council of Europe “Freedom of Information and the duty for the Public authorities to make available information. (Strasbourg, 1977).
[3] Gunewardena, Victor. “Man, Media, and Development, The Press in Sri Lanka” in Human Rights Quarterly, Vol:3, Num:3, Summer 1981, pp.89-100.
[4] Compulsory Membership in an Association Prescribed by Law for the Practice of Journalism, note55, para.70.
[5] Eide, Asbjorn, International Protection of Human Rights, Strasbourg, 1989, p.45-48.
[6] Case: Castells v. Spain, 24 April 1992 Application No:11798/85 para.43
[7] UN Human Rights Committee General Comment 25, 12 July 1996.
[8] The International Humanist and Ethical Union (2.07.2011) www.iheu.org
[9] OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media,www.osce.org
[10] Humrey, John, “Human Rights, the United Nations and 1968”, Journal of the International Commission of Jurists (June 1968) p.1-9.
[11] Mendel, Toby, Freedom of Information, A Comparative Legal Survey, Unesco, Paris, 2008, p.9.
[12] In Turkey, Law on Right to Information was adopted by the Parliament in October 2003 and went into effect in April 2004.
[13] Banisar, David, Freedom of Information around the World 2006: A Global Survey of Access to Government Information Laws, July 2006 (Social Science Research Network).
[14] Ennals, Martin. “Free Flow of Human Rights Information: the need for a systematic communications network” in International Social Science Journal, Vol: XXXIII No:1 (1981) (n.p.) p.13.
[15] Gunewardena, Victor. “Man, Media, and Development, The Press in Sri Lanka” in Human Rights Quarterly, Vol:3, Num:3, Summer 1981, p.93.
[16] Cebrian, Ivan, “Media and the Realization of Human Rights”, in Human Rights and the Media, ed. by Eide Asbjorn and Skoly Sigrun, (n.d.) p.43.
[17] Galliner, Peter. “Human Rights and the Media” in Human Rights and the Media, ed. by Erde Asmjorn and Skoly Sigrun, Oslo, (n.d.) p.118.
[18] Irani, Cushrow. “Media and Human Rights in Asia”, in Human Rights and the Media, ed. by Eide, Asbjorn and Skogly, Sigrun. Oslo (n.d.) p.17.
[19] Irani, Cushrow. “Media and Human Rights in Asia”, in Human Rights and the Media, ed. by Eide, Asbjorn and Skogly, Sigrun. Oslo (n.d.) p.18.
[20] Mass Media and Public Opinion Report of Soviet Finnish Seminar (Tempere, 1988).
[21] Downing, J. The Media Machine, More bad news, London, 1976, p.27.
[22] Brawley, Edward. Mass Media and Human Services: Getting the message across, (Beverly Hills, 1983) p.12.
[23] Abidi, S.A.H., The Role of Mass Media in Promotion of Peace, Nairobi, 1988, p.22.
[24] Gurevitch, Michael and Blumler, G. Jay. “Political Communication Systems and Democratic Values” in Democracy and Mass Media ed. by Lichtenberg, Judith. Cambridge, 1990, pp.265-272.
[25] Gurevitch, Michael and Blumler, G. Jay. “Political Communication Systems and Democratic Values” in Democracy and Mass Media ed. by Lichtenberg, Judith. Cambridge, 1990, pp.269-272.
[26] Fascell, B. Dante, International News, Freedom Under Attack, Washington, 1979, p.199.
[27] Keane, John. “Citizenship and the Freedom of the Media” in the Political Quarterly, July, 1989, Vol:60, No:3 pp.285-287.
[28] Olsen, C. Elaine and Olsen, Henry. Freedom of Communication under Law, (n.p./1987) pp.11-12.
[29] Report by Ramonet, Ignacio. “NGO’s, Citizens’ right of Expression: What access to the Audiovisual Media” in “Parliamentarians NGOs Conference on Politics and Citizen” (Budapest 15-17 May 1991) Council of Europe Documents, AS/PARL-ONG/BUDAPEST (91)5.
[30] Report by Desvergne, Marcel. “Media access strategies for NGO’s one example: the “Ligue d’enseignement” in the same conference above Documents, AS/PARL-ONG/BUDAPEST, (91)6.
[31] Report by Ramonet, Ignacio. “NGO’s, Citizens’ right of Expression: What access to the Audiovisual Media” in “Parliamentarians NGOs Conference on Politics and Citizen” (Budapest 15-17 May 1991) Council of Europe Documents, AS/PARL-ONG/BUDAPEST (91)5.
[32] Mowlana, Hamid. “Trends in Middle Eastern Societies” in Mass Media Policies in changing Cultures, ed. Gerbner, George. 1977, New York, pp.73-81.
[33] Curran, James. “The Impact of advertising on the British Mass Media” in Media, Culture, Society, a Critical Leader, London, 1986 p. 309-317 See on this subject also Tunstall, Jeremy. The Media in Britain, London, 1983, pp.170-173 and Negrine, Ralph. Politics and the Mass Media in Britain, London, 1988.
[34] Report by Sandvig, Helge. “The Mass Media and The United Nations in a Human Rights Dilemma” in International Press Seminar on Human Rights, Geneva, 1986, p.1-12.
[35] Ünsal, Fatma Bostan, “Gezi Park Protests in Turkey: Transformation of a local Protest into a National and International Crisis” in Review of Middle East Studies, Volume 47 No:1 Summer 2013, p.19.
[36] Gürcan, Efe Can & Peker, Efe “A Class analytical approach to the Gezi Park Events: Challenging the Middle Class Myth” in Capital & Class, June 2015 Vol:39 No:2.
[37] Turkish Review, Surveys: Gezi Park demos: Democratic protests or revolt? 1.September.2013.
[38] Yayla, Atilla “Gezi Park Revolts: For or against democracy “Insight Turkey, Vol. 15 No:4 2013, p. 7-18, p.7.
[39] Yayla, Atilla “Gezi Park Revolts: For or against democracy “Insight Turkey, Vol. 15 No:4 2013, p. 9.
[40] Tepe, Sultan, “Democratic Conundrums in Turkey: A Report from İstanbul” Middle East Studies, Volume 47, No:1 Summer 2013 p.23.
[41] Yanardağoğlu, Eylem, “Resist Gezipark: alternative and international media for more media transparency “20 Haziran 2013, yenimedya, wordpress.com>tag-gezipark
[42] Tepe, Sultan, “Democratic Conundrums in Turkey: A Report from İstanbul” Middle East Studies, Volume 47, No:1 Summer 2013 p.25.
[43] 31 Mayıs 2013, Hürriyet Newspaper.
[44] Koehler, Benedict, “Mapping a Revolution: Mass Media and Social Media in the Turkish Protests”, 2 June 2013, Beautiful Data.net/2013 (northetorike.com).
[45] Haksöz, Cengiz, “Food in Gezi Park protests: From ideology and solidarity to resistance” (2014.CES Conference).
[46] Amnesty International Annual Report (Turkey Report) 2014/2015 http://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe
[47] Freedom House Press Report (Turkey) 2014, Press Freedom Rankings, htpp://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press 2014.
[48] Keane, John, “Citizenship and freedom of the Media”, in the Political Quarterly, July 1989, Vol:60, No:3 p.285-287.
[49] Mendel, Toby, Freedom of Information, A Comparative Legal Survey, Unesco, Paris, 2008, p.11.
[50] Lor, Peter Johan & Britz, Johannes Jocabus, “Is a knowledge society possible without freedom of access to information”, in Journal of Information Science, March 23, 2007 Vol. 33 No 4 p. 387-397.