Access to broadband is still far from universal, but it is spreading rapidly and has become as important a tool of development for emerging economies as a road network or adequate sanitation.I still remember vividly the first time I accessed the World Wide Web while visiting a friend in London. I already received e-mails daily through packet switching here in Turkey, but I remember watching in awe as images filled the screen at an agonizingly slow speed, pixel by pixel, after my friend conducted a search on her old Mac computer.
In less than two decades, the Internet has become so central to our lives that we can barely remember how we ever functioned without it. We shop, we pay our bills and we keep in touch with friends. For journalists, and indeed for many other professionals, it has become a daily work tool. In pre-Internet days, I painstakingly collected newspaper clippings but my deficient filing system rarely allowed me to find the right one when I needed it. Today, I can be fairly confident that a search or a bookmark will guide me back to any item that has triggered my interest.
Aside from following the news agenda in Turkey, I can find out daily what news items are making headlines around the globe. While this endless source of information offers plenty of advantages to consumers, free access to news is also dealing a blow to serious journalism. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that in the US, the Internet was now the most important news source after television, leaving radio and newspapers trailing in its wake. Few media outlets have found an adequate business model and resources available to fund serious reporting are drying up. In Turkey, Internet penetration is not yet high enough to threaten news publications, but the online economy is growing rapidly in spite of technological and legal limitations.
Most Internet users in the BBC survey felt the social changes brought by the Internet had been positive. The ability to tap into information sources is the aspect most welcomed around the world. People enjoy the opportunity to learn and to interact with others in social networks. The risk of fraud worried users more than the Web’s more nefarious side, such as sites promoting violence or pornography.
Interestingly, more than half of the people surveyed thought governments should not be involved in regulating the Internet. Turkey, sadly, is one of the countries that maintains the tightest grip on the Internet. With 3,700 Web sites currently banned, including the popular YouTube, it is perhaps not a surprise if only 55 percent of Turks believe the Internet has noticeably increased their freedom whereas this view is held by 78 percent across the world. But the survey showed that Turks value the Internet: A very high percentage of Turks, 91 percent, saw it as a fundamental human right. Turks have also embraced social networking with a level of enthusiasm that they share with their Russian neighbors, even if Turks are more likely than other Europeans to worry about the loss of privacy that Internet use often entails.
The Turkish government, which faces a case at the European Court of Human Rights for its ban on YouTube, should add a new Internet law to the reform package it recently promised. In November 2009, the European Union adopted a new Internet freedom provision which foresees sanctions to be imposed only if “they are appropriate, proportionate and necessary within a democratic society.”
Blocking access to sites viewed by millions the world over because individuals found a few clips offensive hardly qualifies as “proportionate” or even “democratic.” The new EU regulation also calls for “effective and timely judicial review,” which is also lacking here. As more and more people turn to the Internet to broaden their horizons, the Turkish government should go with the flow and adopt a more flexible attitude.
