Today, the online news platforms and independent journalists play a key role in reaching alternative sources of information particularly in the societies where the media actors have been subjected to various forms of censorship. Online censorship has been a problem in Turkey but thankfully people still can have an idea about what is not covered in mass media through social media.
Freelance journalist İbrahim Haskoloğlu (26) is one of the journalists whom I follow on Twitter and Telegram. He also regularly makes live broadcasts on his Twitch platform. A few months ago İbrahim Haskoloğlu stayed in prison for more than a week for allegedly “unlawfully obtaining personal information” after he declared that hackers had stolen personal information from government websites. Haskoloğlu had shared some information, including what is said to belong to President Erdoğan’s ID info and head of National Intelligence Unit (MIT) Hakan Fidan’s ID info. In early this month, an indictment against journalist Ibrahim Haskoloğlu was prepared with a sentence of up to 12 years in prison.
I think Haskoloğlu’s announcement he made on Twitter in April saying that a hacker group had stolen data from government-owned sites has been one of the most critical developments for Turkey that happened in 2022. Having made a short overview about Haskoloğlu and his case, I would like to provide a few pieces of crucial news I gathered from Haskoloğlu’s Twitter posts before 2022 ends and here they are:
1-The retirement pension paid in Turkey in the last decade:
2012: 466 USD
2013: 467 USD
2014: 436 USD
2015: 379 USD
2016: 370 USD
2017: 343 USD
2018: 313 USD
2019: 297 USD
2020: 283 USD
2021: $262 USD
2022: $191 USD
2- Tweet: President Erdoğan mistakenly appointed the rector, who should have been appointed to Kahramanmaraş Istiklal University, to Sütçü İmam University.
3-Tweet: In the last local elections, 13000 Syrians voted. Now their numbers have increased by 85%.
If these birth rates and the speed of granting citizenship continue, the number of deputies will also change.
— Lütfi Savaş, Mayor of Hatay Metropolitan Municipality
4-Tweet: | Turkish Court Sentences Opposition Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu to 2 Years 7 Months In Jail.
Social media platforms like Twitter not only let us learn what is not shared on mainstream mass media which is of dominantly a pro-government nature but it also helps the society build some sort of social awareness in critical issues and trigger judiciary mechanism as well. I hope the year 2023 can host a more free and just society for every single human-being. The above-noted tweets are not the kind of posts we would like to see in 2023!
