A media bill harshly criticized by legal experts and journalists for bringing new censorship to the media will soon be passed in the Turkish parliament after it was approved by the parliamentary Justice Committee. As details of the new regulation emerge, it becomes clear that the legislation includes some censorship clauses and protections in favor of the Turkish intelligence agency (MİT).

If there is a reasonable suspicion that documents belonging to MİT are used in publications, MİT will be able to take action to block the content, and journalists who are thought to have these documents will face criminal prosecution. According to the draft bill, MİT documents cannot be used in the news regardless of whether the news is true or false.

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The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), upon the application of MİT, will decide to block the access of stories without the need for a court decision. In addition, whether to block the site or the news link is left to the discretion of the BTK. In other words, if there is a violation of the law in a Facebook post, access to the entire Facebook site from Turkey can be blocked.  

Read more: Nordic Monitor