20 journalists arrested, 20 journalists attacked in Turkey in 9 months

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) İstanbul MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu has released his "2020 January-September Report on Violations of Freedom of Thought and Expression" in Turkey.

According to the report of the MP, 29 journalists-publishers-writers were convicted, 20 journalists were arrested, 57 journalists faced an investigation-lawsuit, 65 journalists were taken into custody and 20 journalists were attacked in the first nine months of 2020. While orders of confiscation-access block were imposed on 527 publications, 187 people faced a lawsuit-investigation over their social media posts in this period.

The report has underlined that scoring 50.02 points, Turkey ranks 154th in the 180-country World Press Freedom Index.

Reminding the public that Turkey ranked 157th in the previous index, the MP has said that the improvement of Turkey by three ranks cannot be attributed to an improvement of freedom of expression in the country, but to the deterioration in other countries as well as the release of some journalists in Turkey after the 1st Judicial Reform Package entered into force.

According to the "Arrested, Detained for Expressing Opinions" part of the report, the official figures of the Ministry of Interior show that 410 people were detained over their social media posts about COVID-19 as of March 25 and 402 people were detained for the same reason as of April 27.

While 6,362 social media accounts were probed in 42 days, around 15-20 people are estimated to have been arrested. Lawsuits were filed against most of those who had been taken into custody.

Referring to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) statement on the new social media law that has been in effect in Turkey since October 1, the report of Tanrıkulu has indicated that the organization "has registered no fewer than 347 cases of online articles being censored in 3 months."

The MP has also said that nearly 150 bans were imposed in 2018 and 2019 and the number of blocked-deleted news has reached thousands.

According to the report, while the number of publication-broadcast bans was 4 in 2020, it increased to 37 in 2015 and to 164 in 2018. Only in the first four months of 2020, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) has announced around 40 bans on its official website. (RT/SD)