The webinar, convened by 20 people, began with a welcoming speech by Dr Bora Kaya (ELI Turkish Hub Co-Chair; Ankara Bar Association), and followed by an in-dept presentation of the ELI Report on Freedom of Expression as a Common Constitutional Tradition in Europe by Mr Barkın Özyurt (Research Assistant at Bilkent University, Ankara) who also translated the ELI Report into Turkish. Discussions were led by Prof Ece Gözetepe (Bilkent University, Ankara) and Prof Eylem Aksoy Retornaz (Galatasaray University, Istanbul). First, Prof Ece Göztepe discussed the conflicts between the norms in the ELI report and the actual facts, focusing both on the Turkish and the European case law. Subsequently, Prof Eylem Aksoy Retornaz focused on the hate speech, condoning a crime or making an apology of crime (apologie de crime) and fake news, stating the shortcomings of the current Turkish legislation on these topics.

The recording of the webinar is available here.