Turkey Ranks 157th in Freedom of Press

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The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has released its annual World Press Freedom Index. Ranking 157th in last year's index, Turkey has again ranked 157th among 180 countries in the 2019 Press Freedom Index of the RSF.

While Norway, Finland and Sweden are the top three countries, as it was also the case last year, the countries that have ranked the worst have been listed as Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan respectively.

CLICK - Turkey Ranks 157th in Freedom of Press

'Turkey and Russia still pioneers of repression'

Commenting on the state of freedom of press in Turkey, the RSF has referred to Turkey and Russia as "the regional heavyweights" and underlined that instead of showing any improvement in terms of press freedom, "they maintained their role as pioneers of repression."

Sharing further comments on Turkey, the organization has said,

"In Turkey, the biggest media group was taken over by a pro-government business conglomerate and the grip of repression continued to tighten on the few critical media outlets that remain.

"The world's most prolific jailer of professional journalists, Turkey systematically resorts to preventive detention and imposes long prison sentences, sometimes as long as life imprisonment."

'Önderoğlu accused of "terror propaganda" just for defending a Kurdish newspaper'

Within this context, the RSF has also referred to its Representative to Turkey and BİA Media Monitoring Reporter Erol Önderoğlu, who is tried for having participated in "Editors-in-Chief on Watch" campaign in solidarity with the closed Özgür Gündem newspaper:

"Even RSF's representative, Erol Önderoğlu, has been accused of supporting "terrorist propaganda" just for defending a Kurdish newspaper.

"Not content with blocking thousands of articles every year and jailing people for nothing more than a social network "like," Ankara is now trying to bring online video services under its control."

'Turkey is the only country prosecuting a journalist for reporting on Paradise Papers'

Referring to the lawsuit against Pelin Ünker, the former reporter of daily Cumhuriyet, for reporting on Paradise Papers, the RSF has commented, 

"Turkey is also the world's only country where a journalist has been the subject of a criminal prosecution in connection with their reporting on the Paradise Papers. Pelin Ünker was sentenced to 13 months in prison and received a heavy fine.

"It serves as just one of many examples of how investigative journalism, which the government labels as "destructive" or "anti-patriotic," is persecuted. Corruption in particular has been off limits ever since a scandal almost brought down Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government in 2013." (HA/SD)