A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Turkish Game Show Host Turns Show into Protest

There have been many complaints and not a few jokes about the Turkish mainstream media's relative silence about the demonstrations (CNN Türk famously ran a documentary about penguins at the height of the protests). Well, a Turkish game show host found a way around the silence. crafting questions whose answers were references to the protests. See Robert Mackey's post, "Civil Disobedience on a Turkish game show", and then read Zeynep Tufekci's detailed blogpost listing all the answers. It wasn't subtle:
31-The thing that is referred to in Article 28th of the Turkish Constitution as “Free and Cannot be Censored”: PRESS
32-The communication medium defined by Nezihe Meriç as “A dragon with a thousand heads”: MEDIA
33-An action that means the same thing as approval: SILENCE
34-Limiting the freedom of press, communication, film or books by government: CENSORSHIP
35-The person who is supposed to learn about an event and write about in various outlets: JOURNALIST
36-The microblog and social network site that has been described as a “curse”: TWITTER
37-The person Mustafa Kemal Ataturk said should “write his/her thoughts freely”: JOURNALIST
38-Person who tries to kiss up to power: BROWN NOSER
39-The state of being able to resist power or injustice but being quiet: COWARDICE
40-The branch that is held on to by people after being abandoned by mainstream media: SOCIAL MEDIA
No, not subtle at all:
64-The person who is trying to actualize his/her ideas, thoughts: ÇAPULCU (LOOTER which is what the Prime Minister called the protesters)
65-A town in Hatay that is famous for its baths: REYHANLI (where a bombing was followed by press censorship)
66-A person that concentrates all political power: DICTATOR
67-A person who serves for money: SERVANT
68-A ruling system in which executive power can act independent of judiciary: PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM (internal Turkish political transition discussion)
69-To voluntarily give up a position: RESIGN
70-The act that makes a person bigger by asking to be forgiven for wrong actions: APOLOGIZE

No comments: