Nilanjana S Roy: The Istanbul conundrum
Nilanjana S Roy / New Delhi Jan 15, 2013, 00:30 IST
When Turkey allowed several thousands of books to move off the banned list earlier this week, you might have expected anti-censorship activists to be delighted.
For years, the fact that these books – ranging from The Communist Manifesto to works by Lenin, Nazim Hikmet and the Marquis De Sade – were banned had allowed authorities to selectively punish students and activists who had these in their possession. Public prosecutor Kü K?rsat Kayral was quoted in the Hurriyet Daily News: “Lifting the bans will make a clean break in society. If we cannot explain to anyone that freedom of expression is a complete body comprised of many different liberties, it won’t matter if we know if the king is naked.”
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