Freedom House report: Turkey's status 'not free' for the fourth year in a row

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Freedom House, a US government-funded NGO, has released its Freedom in the World 2020 report.

The report entitled "Democracy Under Siege" points out that global freedom declined for the 15th consecutive year as the countries experienced deterioration outnumbered those with improvements by the largest margin recorded since 2006.

Freedoms declined in 73 countries that have about 75 percent of the world's population, according to the report.

Among those countries was Turkey, which was categorized as a "not free" country for the fourth consecutive year.

Turkey scored 32 out of 100 in the Freedom House index. Its score was 16 out of 40 in political rights and 16 out of 60 in civil liberties.

"While President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continues to exert tremendous power in Turkish politics, opposition victories in 2019 municipal elections and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the already shaky economy have given the government new incentives to suppress dissent and limit public discourse," says the report.

CLICK - Freedom House: Turkey Declines to 'Not Free' Countries

CLICK - Freedom House: Restrictions on Basic Rights Persist in Turkey

The report lists the key developments in Turkey in 2020 as follows:

* As the Covid-19 crisis threatened the economy and the government's political standing during the year, authorities apparently sought to manipulate official health statistics and launched criminal investigations against medical professionals who released independent information about the outbreak or criticized the official response.

Hundreds of ordinary people were also arrested for their social media posts related to the coronavirus.

* Prosecutions and campaigns of harassment against opposition politicians, prominent members of civil society, independent journalists, and critics of Turkey's increasingly aggressive foreign policy continued throughout the year.

In December, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) called for the immediate release of Selahattin Demirtaş, leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who had been imprisoned since 2016 on politically motivated charges; the court's ruling was ignored. New arrests of HDP members and leaders were carried out during the year, adding to the thousands who have been detained since 2015. The government also continued to replace HDP municipal officials with centrally appointed "trustees."

* Despite a 2019 ECtHR ruling that called for the release of philanthropist Osman Kavala, he remained behind bars at year's end facing trumped-up charges. Detained in 2017, he was acquitted in the original case in February 2020, but a new indictment issued in October accused Kavala and a US academic, without evidence, of involvement in the 2016 coup attempt. (SO/VK)