Global Media law in Turkey

Brief

Media Laws can be described as restrictions that are put upon countries, states, nations, and etc. regarding how and what they present things to the media. The United States Citizens' are so lucky because of the different rights that they have as ‘US Citizens: like the Freedom of the Press Act, Telecommunication Law, Privacy Act, and many more.

Generalities

A lot of countries have totalitarianism, communism, Monarchy, Oligarchy, and a few more. Some of the listed rulers provide their citizens with little to no say on who is to be elected, restrictions on how many children they can conceive, or even how they can wear their hair.

This goes to the media where the ‘freedom of speech users’ (US Citizens) freely speak out on behalf of the silenced, who either create change, get someone harshly punished, or sadly die. Please be grateful for the power that you have and do not overuse it!

Turkey’s Media Revision

In late 2022, Turkey’s authority decided to revise its law on what content can be made regarding any matters that are happening in Turkey. The revision pushed by Turkish President ‘Recep Tayyin Erdogan’, will silence the use of any opposition, opinions, or disagreements made by civilians in Turkey.

They also pushed for different social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter to be banned by the higher authority when someone steps out of line with narratives that don’t fit Turkish customs. The unlawful individuals are punished for four to five years in a penal institution. Though at the time the citizens were not worried about these new regulations being put into play, after much thought, it is believed that this new ruling will be put into place during election time in 2023.

Turkey has even gone to the lengths to say that those said charges can be seen as the expulsion of putting people at risk by telling the public about health, safety, and anything else in that spectrum. 

Social Media

It would be thought that Turkey stopped their demise on the citizens' media rights after the first push, but they decided to take it further by making users give up their privacy of WhatsApp regarding ‘assumed lies’ made online about the Country. 

Not to mention, earlier it was also said that Facebook and as well as Twitter individual accounts would be more so hacked by authorities if any foul play was assumed to be made.

This is not the first time that Turkish authority has tried to ban social media in Turkey, but instead, they did in 2014, according to amp.theguardian.com when a private conversation was exposed on the platform.  They even attempted to block Twitter for similar reasons and it was denied by the courts.

Ultimately, Turkey has a very strict hand on its citizens and any mishap will lead to imprisonment, or the cutting-off of a media outlet. After much research, Turkey isn’t known for killings dealing with the media as much as other countries so in hindsight that is alright. 

 Sandy Hook Defamation Trial

Brief

 

According to merriam-webster.com Misinformation refers to incorrect or misleading information. Indubitably, a great deal of paranoid and otherwise irresponsible. It is quite common for news outlets to provide misinformation to the public as well as people in your everyday life due to the lack of factual content. Misinformation can be alarming to the public because if they are continuously seeing the false content over and over and it sets confusion, belief, and finally realization in your mind once the facts are known.

 

Podcasts have become a staple for information and opinions in the YouTube community over the past two years. 

 

It is said on Globalnews.com that these creators and/or groups have been notable for spreading misinformation that can sometimes be biased. 

 

The Scandal

 

The Sandy Hook tragedy is known worldwide and is known as the day in 2012, where everyone started to become more caring and protective for their children. The tragedy was that 20 children and six teachers were wrongfully murdered by a school shooter. cnn.com

 

Since the story was well-known, everyone was giving their condolences to the children, parents of the children, as well as the teachers and their families. Podcaster Alex Jones took to his platform and disregarded the tragedy as a global disaster in the education and safety of the world by saying that he believes that it was a joke or trick.

 

The real question is who would go out of their way to plan a practical joke to endanger the youth and educators. From his statement, I felt like he was insinuating that it was pre-rehearsed to which we all know it was not, but possibly premeditated.

(Clip ends at 1:44). (Clip starts at 0:55 - 1:50)

 

To add, Alex Jones is a conspiracy theorist who believes beyond the belief of other opinions dealing with supernatural or superficial facts that he believes are true to him. Since he is known for being the person that he is, it was believable to many that his statement could potentially be true. That is also known as having influence - changing a person or thing in an indirect but important way.

 

Consequences 

 

After the cruel and unjust claim made by Alex jones, he was summoned by the families to pay 1.44 billion dollars (about $4 per person in the US) for the claims as well as an extras $473 dollars for spreading the alleged claim. 

 

                                                       

His Remarks

Today and all the years after his takedown, he still believes that it was not a real tragedy and that it all did not actually happen, though when he was on trial he said that he knows that it did happen.

This is not the first time that he has gotten in trouble with the law, viewers, and civilians over his lack of empathetic statements, but in fact one out of three that included the Connecticut Defamation Trial and Massacre of Newton. bbc.com

Closing Remarks 

 The career and following that Alex Jones had has tremendously depleted or in this generation has 'canceled' him. I would hope that he has learned his lesson from the amount of death threats, legal issues, and his conscious to stop, but there are people in this world who have no remorse for their actions.

 

Child Stars Exploitation

Brief

According to Merriam-Webster Exploiting refers to “making use of meanly or unfairly for one’s own advantage”. The film and television industry plays a major role in exploiting child stars that has a lifetime effect on them unless the matter is treated properly.

Exploitation happens everywhere, not just in the film and television industry, but the fact that people are paid to exploit their children for money is insane.

Film

In the movie "Pretty Baby", starring Brooke Shields, she is portrayed to be a little girl who in short, is actioned off by older men for their own guilty pleasures. In other terms, she is a child prostitute throughout the film. More prerogative accounts happen in the film, but that one is what made my stomach boil.

Since the movie was filmed in the 70s, matters pertaining to sexualizing children in all forms were seen as normal, but in the century that we live in today, our generation is not putting up with nonsense. There were even scenes in the film where the young girl was getting undressed in front of older men as well as nudity scenes.

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To add, Hulu has even joined in on the matter of her story by creating a documentary specifically about the film.

Overall, I feel as though her late mother should have felt disgusted for exploiting her 11-year-old child to such bad activities that she has to answer to being a 57-year-old adult.

 

Television

Actor, Jennette McCurdy is known throughout the television industry as a child star. She began to act in supporting roles, but her stardom was when she appeared as a main character in the show "iCarly'." Since the show, she has disappeared from acting until the release of her memoir, “I’m Glad My Mom Died”, in early August of last year. 

Her memoir is about the obsession that her mother had with her becoming a notable well-known actor. Throughout her story, she explains that one of the most enduring things that her mom did was cause to have her on a strict diet counting her calories at the age of 10, Buzzfeednews.com), to which caused her to form an eating disorder in the prime of her life when we were all gushing over her casting in the televised show ‘iCarly’. It is also said on Pagesix.com that her mother was so controlling to the point the she would make her (11-years old)  and brother (15-year-old) shower together and it made them both uncomfortable.

There is even a reboot of the show that premiered in 2021, of which Jennette declined to be partly due to her childhood trauma cast upon her by her mother as well as the well-known producer ‘Dan Schneider’ on the set of her debut appearance ‘iCarly’.

                             (Original)                                                                (Reboot)

                        

To add, Jennette McCurdy is thriving and at peace since the passing of her mother, but she knows that if she were alive today, she would still be unhappy being an actor, having an eating disorder, and only used to pay the bills.

                          Clip ends at 0:43                                  Clip ends at 0:53

                        

Conclusion

It is sad to learn that many child stars that we grew up with admired and loving, didn’t feel the same way about themselves that we felt about them or the character that they portrayed. Ultimately, parents should consider that they are only children, and such young minds can not process such. Lastly, companies that are offering these roles to parents with the intent of making them money should think of other outcomes to get funded.