World magazine reports on the "transitional" country of Turkey. It is a country with a strong secular tradition but currently with an Islamist government. It geographically straddles Asia and Europe, and would like to become more integrated with the European community. Yet, according to the article in the May 7, 2011 edition , "Dozens of journalists are currently in prison --- among the highest numbers of jailed journalists in the world, according to Freedom House....In March, Turkish police arrested 13 journalists on charges of conspiring to overthrow [the ruling party]."
I had no idea that Turkey had descended this far into autocracy. Just to be on the safe side, I decided to cross check these claims with the original sources. I found pretty much the same sad story
here and
here.
Doug and I recently completed a case study of the reform of corruption in the LAPD in the late 1940s and early 1950s. A free and competitive media was one of the institutions that clearly aided that successful drive against corruption. This does not look promising for the Turkish people.
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