State of press freedom in Turkey: 1 journalist arrested, 3 attacked in September

"Free press cannot be silenced!"

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The Tigris-Euphrates Journalists Association (DFG) has released its September report on violations of journalists' rights.

The report has shown that five journalists were detained, one journalist was arrested and three journalists were attacked in September 2021. While journalists were prevented from news follow-up in 15 incidents, six journalists faced an investigation and 7 were put on trial.

Noting that journalists have some rights and a chance to life even in countries with minimum amount of freedom, the DFG has raised concerns that it is not the case in Turkey: "Obligated to convey the truth to people, journalists are faced with various obstacles while fulfilling this duty. Every month, we prepare our report by dreaming of a country where the pressure and obstacles targeting journalists decrease or completely disappear; however, with every new report, we unfortunately observe that the situation is getting even more grave with each passing month."

Referring to the new legal amendments poised to aggravate the censorship on the press, the report has said, "We know very well what kind of a destruction will be caused in this sphere by the motion that is expected to be brought to the Parliamentary agenda and contains arrangements about the digital media. With the previous legal arrangements, journalists and media outlets have been rendered almost speechless. The new arrangement to be introduced will aggravate the situation further."

'The most striking violation: Censorship'

The DFG has shared the following findings in its report:

• Only in September, 50 journalists appeared before the judge and stood trial on the grounds of their news and thoughts. Six of them were sentenced to 27 years, 3 months in prison. However, the most striking violations in September were practices of censorship.
• Especially the fines imposed by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) and Press Advertisement Institution (BİK), which operate as committees of censorship, on media outlets prove how censorship has been put into action.
• Similarly, the fines imposed by the related courts on some news portals in the form of access blocks have been trampling upon rights and freedoms. Of the 9 websites that faced access blocks, JinNews, the only women's news agency of Turkey, faced five access blocks, which manifests how grave this situation is.
• Moreover, we can see that the websites that are not directly closed face attempts to be silenced with access blocks to their news.

CLICK - BIA Media Monitoring Reports

State of pressure on journalists

Noting that there are still several journalists behind bars and they get their share from the violations of rights unfolding here, the DFG has called for an end to the violations faced by jailed journalists.

The report has said that as of October 5, the number of arrested journalists was 63 in Turkey. The report has indicated that in September 2021, five journalists were taken into custody, one journalist was arrested, three journalists were attacked, journalists were prevented from news follow-up in 15 incidents, six journalists faced an investigation, seven journalists faced court cases, six journalists were sentenced to 27 years, 3 months in prison, 50 journalists were still on trial as part of 33 case files, two journalists were subjected to violations of rights in prison, the public ads of three newspapers were cut for 100 days, the RTÜK imposed seven fines of six channels, access blocks were imposed on 37 websites, including 28 news websites, and seven journalists were dismissed.

CLICK - Media Monitoring Database

(HA/SD)