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Turkey Arrests Journalists For Using Encryption
An anonymous reader sends news that three employees of Vice News were arrested in Turkey because one of them used an encryption system on his personal computer. That particular type of encryption has been used by the terrorist organization known as the Islamic State, so the men were charged with "engaging in terrorist activity." The head of a local lawyers association said, "I find it ridiculous that they were taken into custody. I don't believe there is any accuracy to what they are charged for. To me, it seems like an attempt by the government to get international journalists away from the area of conflict." The Turkish government denied these claims: "This is an unpleasant incident, but the judiciary is moving forward with the investigation independently and, contrary to claims, the government has no role in the proceedings."
Well, generally it's a good thing that we have an independent judiciary. It ensures that they don't get caught up in the mob's favorite punching bag of the moment.
The problem here is that a judiciary is only supposed to hear cases of controversy: That means there has to be two sides, and the case can't go on if there's no one to prosecute.
In other words, if what they are saying is true, this means the Turkish courts are effectively judge AND prosecutor.
Wonder what the public key field is for?
Not that surprising for anyone that follows Turkish politics. Erdogan isn't as bad as ISIS but he inch-by-inch is taking Turkey down the theocratic road of countries like Afghanistan. He practically had to be coerced into fighting ISIS. Very plausible he would have joined forces with ISIS to fight Kurds if it hadn't been for foreign pressure)
Most Turks you meet are super nice in person but for some unfathomable reason this crpto-fascist jerk keeps winning elections. If he keeps winning elections, Turkey is going to devolve into a theocracy like most of the rest of the middle east. Secular Atatürk was rational (especially for his era). Erdogan things he's an Ottoman sultan. Populist moron.
Wow, so now to get arrested for terrorism, all you have to do is use the same kind of thing that a terrorist has used?
I sure hope none of them wear Nikes.
"the Casio F-91W digital watch was declared to be 'the sign of al-Qaeda' and a contributing factor to continued detention of prisoners by the analysts stationed at GuantÃnamo Bay." from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
Isn't an encrypted population like an armed population? Computers capable of powerful of enough encryption which once classified as munitions and their export banned. So having encryption is kind of like having the right to defend yourself. Which I do not see as bad, nor should the republicans who believe in the right to bear arms.
Society use your Sciences
So their judiciary isn't part of the government?
The original statement was in Turkish, not English. So saying "government" rather than "administration" was likely just a bad translation by a journalist.
What encryption system I wonder. Isn't https an encryption system that is used by Islamic State?
That's the British sense of the word "government", not the US sense of the word. Turkey, like many nations, has a parliamentary system.
It goes something like this. The people elect parliament, who make laws much like the US Congress. The parliament then elects or nominates two heads. One handles foreign affairs. That's the head of state. In the US, the president is head of state. The other top person forms "a government" which handles internal affairs. The US is weird in that then president is both head of state and head of government. In parliamentary systems like Turkey and the UK, they are two seperate positions. (Though sometimes the head of state now has only nominal power, if the head of government and the parliament have slowly taken more and more power).
Seperate from "the government" and parliament is the judiciary. The head of government can't fire judges.
In this type of system, as in the early US system, the head of government doesn't have nearly as much power as the US president does. Other branches can and do act independently.
Turkey has a member of NATO since 1952. They joined before (West) Germany did.
Turkey is in both Asia and Europe. It can control entry to the Black Sea (which contains the Crimea).
NATO called the *North Atlantic* Treaty Organisation because the North Atlantic is what lies between Europe and North America.
Really, if you did too many 'shrooms at school, you can find out all this stuff now with about 10 minutes on Wikipedia.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
You wanted functional encryption to be made illegal. Turkey has just taken a bold step towards this brave stance. How does it taste to you? I bet the EU spokeswoman's comments made the pill even more delicious, since she mentioned human rights, which is something the UK government also wants to shred.