EU hails Turkey free speech move

Stephanie Messana

I. Citation:
"EU hails Turkey free speech move"
BBC News
April 30, 2008

II. Summary:
This article is about how Turkey is making moves towards legalizing freedom of speech. Freedom of speech and expression has always been a problem in predominantly Muslim nations. Many people have been prosecuted for making comments about their own country, ranging from two years jail time to death.

III. Reactions:
- This article relates to the AP World History Theme cultural, religious, and intellectual developments because Turkish culture is strongly infulenced by it's religion and the country is taking a step towards changing their culture and allowing freedom of speech.
- The historical background of the issue has to do with the main religion of Turkey being Islam and that religion strongly suppresses the rights of men and women.
- It is difficult to evaluate the point of view because there is no author's name.
- The author's point of view is not impacting the way the issue is reported because the author is not biased towards any particular opinion of the issue.
- Considering the fact that there is no clear point of view on the issue, it would probably be helpful to hear from a Turkish political leader and a Turkish citizen because they are first-hand experiencing the suppression of the inability of Turkish peoples to express freedom of speech.
- I liked this article because it shows that Middle Eastern countries are taking steps towards granting more freedoms to it's citizens. Freedom of speech is a very important thing for a person to have because it allows them to have a voice in their government.