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Altyazı Cinema Association: Censorship of "Kanun Hükmü" (Law Enforcement) at Golden Orange is a Violation of Freedom of Expression

The Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, which was held for the 60th time this year, became a hot topic when the documentary Kanun Hükmü, which had applied for the competition in the National Documentary Film category, was excluded from the competition selection on the grounds that the court case was still ongoing. In a statement, the Altyazı Cinema Association said the exclusion of the documentary from the festival was a violation of the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression.

The statement said, "It is a new threshold in the history of Turkish censorship that a film festival, whose main responsibility to the law is to protect freedom of artistic expression, invents such a justification for its censorship and claims it is based on "legal" grounds." 

In its written statement, the association addressed the festival management and the Antalya Municipality, which holds a decision-making position, demanding both the reinstatement of the documentary in the competition and the withdrawal of the statement.

The statement also criticized the practice of censorship by names from the cinema industry.

"In the political climate that the past decade has brought, our main demand is that festival organizers refuse to take the position that enforces censorship and finds excuses for censorship. We demand that they resist the pressure of censorship by taking the cinema community with them, and that they give transparent explanations when they do not have this will. "We think that this demand, which is not only for Antalya, but for all other festivals will help establish the autonomy of the festivals - which requires a longer-term struggle. Whether those who dictates censorship show up or not, it's not the festivals' job to apologize for them."

Click to read the full statement.

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