The Tunisian President, Kais Saied, certainly did not think that his decree-law of September 16, 2022, would be emulated as far as Turkey, and yet.
The Turkish Parliament, all committed to the cause of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has just made him a tailor-made tool to atomize the little that remains of the opposition: A law to criminalize the dissemination of “fake news “, with penalties of prison term, up to 3 years. This is what the power found to ward off the catastrophic results in prospect for the June 2023 elections, due to a disastrous economic record…
A bad reflex, always the same
It is well known: When the authorities are overwhelmed by the bad situation and they have no practical solution to relieve the populations, they tense up and the iron fist becomes very tempting to muzzle any dispute. And there are bound to be protests when the country is facing the worst economic crisis in its history, a national currency that is depreciating at high speed, inflation at an unprecedented level (83.45% on a year last month), etc. All of this obviously cannot be good for Erdogan, who is putting his seat in the balance at the next general election. Then the reflex of autocracy, which is never far with him, takes over.
Muzzle, crush, eliminate all the heads that stick out, even more. How else to interpret this law on so-called disinformation, officially called “Press Law ” and which the opposition has dubbed “ Censorship Law ”. “ Propagation of false or misleading information contrary to the internal and external security of the country and likely to harm public health, disturb public order, spread fear or panic among the population ”, it is what Article 29 of Erdogan’s new instrument says, reports Ouest France . It almost looks like the text invented by Kais Saied to calm the media bronca that accompanies each of the actions he poses…
Tunisia is not Turkey
Except that in Tunisia such a device is inoperative. Tunisia is not Turkey, Tunisians are not Turks. Moreover I dare to believe that Saied, whatever his detractors say, does not have the same mentality as Erdogan, is not in the same state of mind. And even if the Turkish temptation was pointing the tip of its nose, Tunisian civil society and opponents – they are very active even if their popularity is tending towards zero, apart from the tireless and valiant Abir Moussi – would not allow it to happen.
Until proven otherwise, Tunisia does not have a plethora of journalists and civil society activists imprisoned for crimes of opinion. Some have had trouble with the justice system, but each time it ends in acquittals or not taking place, not because we would be more virtuous on Tunisian soil but because quite simply local and foreign pressure – we must not lower – is too strong. None of that in Turkey…
What a boomerang
Erdogan is certainly the one who is active in relieving developing countries, but he is also the one who changed the face of democracy as soon as he took the reins in Turkey, in 2014. Everything has changed since, with authoritarian drifts that have crescendoed , especially since the abortive coup of 2016 that he quickly stuck to his sworn enemy, Fethullah Gülen. Since then, he has relentlessly hunted down his supporters, flushed them out everywhere, fired them by the tens of thousands – more than 120,000 – from the public service if he did not put them in prison – some 50,000. He took the opportunity to put in the same bag all the newspapers which do not go in the direction which he wants and there are many. To end with this “ Press Law ”…
S’il suffisait de réprimer pour solutionner ses problèmes ça se saurait. Peut-être qu’Erdogan ne le sait pas encore mais ça ne va pas tarder. Il a multiplié les grands écarts entre Israël et la cause palestinienne ; il a fait la paix avec ses ennemis historiques du Golfe au nom de gros investissements ; il a même avalé l’affront suprême en lavant de ses pêchés le prince héritier saoudien, qu’il a accusé d’avoir envoyé ses sbires pour assassiner atrocement à Istanbul le journaliste Jamal Khashoggi, en 2018. Etc. Tout ça Erdogan l’a fait pour sauver son économie et au passage son fauteuil. Rien n’y a fait. L’acte qu’il vient de poser pour écraser le peu d’opposants qui restent est voué au même destin : Pschitt.
