In mid-October the press surprised us with a bombshell news: Turkey will punish the dissemination of "false information" with prison sentences. The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made up of Islamist and far-right deputies, had just approved a legislative reform aimed at persecuting and eradicating the blatant disinformation that he knows circulates on the internet and social networks, which is precisely where the opposition and organizations in favor of civil rights and freedom of the press, which did not take long to oppose such a "censorship law".
Everyone knows that the internet and social networks are a breeding ground for all kinds of falsehoods and manipulations. Now, who decides what is false information? Is only the one you dislike false? Is only the one you like necessarily true? Well, apparently that's where the shots go, and woe to anyone who messes with the Turkish government, because he runs the very real risk of ending up behind bars, and Turkish prisons are what they are.
Erdogan already controls the majority of the Turkish press, but in view of the legislative elections that will be held next year, it is in his best interest to root out any popular movement against him, especially considering that the latest polls are not favorable. So, from now on, any criticism runs the risk of being considered fake news and its authors punished with chains of up to three years for spreading hoaxes that threaten "the internal and external security of the country."
However, Turkey is by no means an isolated case. Western leaders, whether or not they are staunch democrats, find it increasingly attractive to go to great lengths to control the media and social networks. In fact, it seems that it is the only thing that matters to them. That and the polls, which also try by all means to "cook" in their favor. To the opposition, nor water. All criticism is branded ipso facto as fake news.
It would seem that the democratic pedigree of which the Anglo-Saxon countries boasted so much has vanished without a trace. Interestingly or not, they all have the same communications tycoon capable of creating or destroying governments at will. This is Rupert Murdoch, who at 91 years old is still giving war. Without his appreciable help, it is unlikely that he would have won the Brexit referendum or the Trump presidency. In both cases, and in many others, false news was spread through a tube.
What happens is that the truth is becoming more and more annoying. So much so that we fight him with hoaxes and lies. On a personal level, it may be acceptable, as long as it does not incur the insult or violate the freedoms of others, but when it becomes a common practice among our rulers, we would have to oppose such an abuse of power in any way possible.
One of the most revealing cases of the Catalan procés was that of a mosso who was fined for telling an indepe that "the republic does not exist, idiot." Of course, he could have avoided being an idiot, but the truth was with him when he affirmed the non-existence of a Catalan republic, no matter how much the Government and the related media and networks affirmed the contrary.
Erdogan does nothing but what has been done for a long time everywhere, yes, with more or less dissimulation, with more or less bad grapes than in Turkey. Initially, what is sought, through laws, threats and job dismissals, is the implementation of self-censorship, which is colorless and neither stains nor smells. In other words, practices that are only acceptable in times of war, which apparently is where we are. If so, it is lawful to persecute and punish those who insist on telling the truth, who are in a situation of search and capture, instead of spreading official lies.
