Freedom of Expression Association

Protection and promotion of freedom of expression, freedom of the media, Internet freedom and academic freedom in Turkey is in the heart of overall objectives of the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD – İfade Özgürlüğü Derneği). As part of its core activities, İFÖD deals with issues from Internet censorship to academic freedom and from press freedom to artistic expression. To this end, the organization is implementing programs that aim to develop and enhance strategies in freedom of expression related jurisprudence, to increase capacity by monitoring, research and training and is planning to build strategies for an enhanced right to access to information.

Latest Works

ARTICLE 19 and İFÖD issued a joint press release titled “Twitter becomes latest company to comply with repressive social media law” stating that Twitter’s decision, which follows those by YouTube, TikTok and Facebook, means Turkish social media users’ freedom of expression is under even more severe threat, with companies essentially making themselves an instrument of state censorship.

ARTICLE 19 and İFÖD issued a joint press release titled “TikTok’s compliance with social media law enables expansion of censorship regime” stating that TikTok’s decision to comply with Turkey’s new repressive laws on social media seriously threatens free speech on its platform and enables the Turkish government to expand its censorship regime.

ARTICLE 19, Human Rights Watch, and İFÖD issued a joint press release titled “YouTube Precedent Threatens Free Expression” stating that YouTube decision to appoint local representative in Turkey threatens free expression and called on YouTube to reverse its decision.

İFÖD primarily aims to raise local and national awareness on Internet freedom and freedom of expression. In this context, İFÖD has been implementing training programs for young lawyers and law school students. Latest online training entitled “Internet and Freedom of Expression for Young Lawyers” has been conducted between the 2-9 November 2020.