In Turkey, a blogger will be judged for a photo of an opener from an erotic museum in Amsterdam
If you think that your state is tightening the screws too tightly and controls your every step on the web, then what should I say to bloggers from Turkey, who can be put behind bars for completely harmless photos. Instagram blogger Merv Taskin was summoned to court on August 5 for posting photos from the Sex Museum in Amsterdam on her account, which did not even violate the rules of Instagram.
Merv Taskin wrote in her blog that she was called as a defendant to a court hearing that will be held in one of the courts of Istanbul on October 26, 2021. The girl is accused of distributing obscene content on the network, which according to Turkish law is punishable by a large fine or imprisonment for up to 3 years.
The blogger is well known in her homeland and more than 570 thousand users have subscribed to her account. Merv's unpleasant story began in January 2020, when she was on vacation with friends in Amsterdam. The girl visited the popular tourist attractions of the Dutch capital and immediately shared pictures and impressions with followers on Instagram.
I visited Taskin and the Museum of Sex, where, like many other guests, I took some funny pictures for Instagram and Twitter. Soon Merv came to her senses and removed most of the content from the museum, leaving only the most harmless, in her opinion, photos with bottle openers, pasta and tubes of toothpaste in the form of penises.
To the blogger's surprise, a few months after returning from a trip, the police raided her apartment in Istanbul. Law enforcement officers arrested Taskin and held her for several hours at the police station, asking about her blogging activities and shaming her for indecent photos.
After completing all the formalities, the girl was released home, but they took her on her own recognizance not to leave until the trial. And now Merv has received a subpoena that can dramatically change her life. She can only hope for the prudence of people in judicial robes, but the chance of a full acquittal is quite small.
The director of the Museum of Sex, Monica van Marl, reacted to this stupid and dangerous situation. The woman sent Marv Taskin a letter with words of support, in which she expressed regret that the girl had problems because of the harmless pictures.
The story of a Turkish blogger looks absurd, but the Turkish Criminal Code actually has Article 226 regulating the publication of obscene content in the media and the Internet. Therefore, the citizens of the country need to be very careful, posting photos and videos even with minimal sexual overtones.
Oddly enough, there is no clear definition of what is obscene in Turkish legislation. This allows the judges to decide at their discretion how great the defendant's guilt is. Photos and drawings of the erotic genre in Turkey are allowed only in the form of works of art or as illustrations for scientific books. But strict age restrictions apply to all these sources.
Recently, the Iranian Angelina Jolie Sahar Tabar, who was sentenced to 10 years for blasphemy, almost paid for her publication in social networks, but then released.
Keywords: Court | Amsterdam | Museum | Istanbul | Erotica | Social networks | News of the day