Turkey’s media watchdog asks Albanian counterpart to restrict Gülen documentary
Date posted: February 2, 2017
The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) head İlhan Yerlikaya has sent a letter to his Albanian counterpart to restrict a documentary titled “Love is a Verb,” saying that the film was broadcasted to make propaganda on behalf of the Gülen movement.
The Audiovisual Media Authority of Albania (AMA) President Gala was asked to take “necessary measures” against PlusHD TV channel that has aired the documentary very recently.
Examining the movement and its affiliations across the world, the documentary was directed by the US-based director Terry Spencer Hesser in 2014.
The letter came days after Turkey has demanded help from Switzerland to pursue critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as part of a bilateral agreement on intelligence sharing between the two countries.
Love is a Verb – Official Trailer
Love Is A Verb is an examination of a social movement of Sufi-inspired Muslims that began in Turkey in the l960s and now spans across the globe. The group is called Hizmet, the Turkish word for “service” or The Gülen Movement after its inspiration and teacher, Fethullah Gülen, a man TIME magazine named as one of the most influential leaders in the world in 2013 for “…preaching a message of tolerance.”
To prove whether the Gülen movement has a parallel structure , one has to establish that the investigations and wiretappings were not conducted within the scope of a legal investigation. If that is proven, one has to demonstrate that the police and prosecutors in charge of the investigations were receiving instructions not from the state but from sources within the movement. Both of these claims have to be proven with evidence.
Mr. Erdogan’s Jaw-Dropping Hypocrisy
Tayyip Erdogan, has gall. He has jailed tens of thousands of people, shuttered more than 150 media companies and called a referendum in April to enlarge his powers. Yet when local authorities in Germany, for security reasons, barred two Turkish ministers from campaigning among Turks living in Germany, Mr. Erdogan exploded, accusing Germany of Nazi practices and knowing nothing about democracy.
Istanbul court blocks access to Gülen’s website
An Istanbul court has ruled to block access to the website of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, accused by the Turkish government of “leading a terrorist organization.”
Statement on Journalists Arrests
The raids on Turkey’s top selling newspaper Zaman and prominent TV organization STV are profoundly disturbing to all of us who value democracy, tolerance and the role of a free press in safeguarding both. Journalists who report about the suppression of human rights are not enemies of the state; rather they are documenting the actions of those who undermine the safeguards of a democratic Turkey.
Election results and the Hizmet movement
Unlike the perception that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tried to create, with the help of tremendous media power, the contention in the run-up to the elections was never between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Hizmet movement (or the so-called foreign forces that colluded with it).
Stuttgart police: ‘Boycotts of Gülen-friendly shops are potential hate crimes’
Police in Germany are investigating whether calls to boycott shops owned by supporters of the self-exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen constitute hate crimes. There are currently 15 open investigations. Police in the southern German city of Stuttgart said Wednesday they were investigating calls to avoid patronizing Gülen-friendly stores, shops and restaurants as potential hate crimes.
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