Freedom of Speech in Turkey's Social Media: Democracy "alla turca"

The article discusses the issue of freedom of expression in Turkey from a historical perspective and analyses the present situation. Though Turkish government officials and authorities often pledge their adherence to international democratic standards, nowadays the legislation regulating freedom of expression in the various media (including, or especially the Internet and social media) shows that Turkey is actually far from fulfilling its obligations under the ECHR and cannot, under these circumstances, fulfill the political accession criteria of the EU. This has been the case in the past, as evidenced in the first part of the article, and recent developments, which are also touched upon in the article, show that it is even more so at present.