Will he or won't he? All eyes are on Turkey's president, Abdullah Gul, a co-founder with the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) party. A bill imposing drastic curbs on the internet, which critics say would put Turkey on a par with Iran and China, has been rammed through the AK-dominated parliament, to howls of protest from the opposition and the European Union. The bill lets Turkey's telecommunications authority (TIB) block any website without first seeking a court ruling. It also allows TIB arbitrarily to efface "offensive" content without users being any the wiser. And it obliges internet-service providers to store all data on web users' activities for two years and to give their profiles to the authorities on demand.
展开▼
