Journalism organizations call for withdrawal of Press Law amendment

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Press organizations in Turkey issued a joint statement regarding the law proposal, which the government defined as "Disinformation Law."

"As seven leading journalism organizations in Turkey, we are concerned that a bill on disinformation could lead to one of the heaviest censorship and self-censorship mechanisms in the history of the Republic." said the press institutions.

Deputies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party(MHP) have submitted a "disinformation bill" to the parliament.

Signed by 66 MPs from the two parties, the "Law Proposal on the Amendment of the Press Law and Some Laws" was submitted to the Speaker's Office of the parliament yesterday (May 26). The 31-page draft law contains 39 articles.

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"Withdraw the bill"

In the statement signed by the Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS), International Press Institute's (IPI) National Committee in Turkey, Association of Journalists, Progressive Journalists Association (PJA), Turkish Press Council, Haber-Sen and İzmir Journalists Association (IGC), it was noted that the bill was prepared behind closed doors by the ruling AKP and the MHP executives and the opinions of the journalists were not consulted.

"The bill adds a new crime titled "distributing deceptive information publicly" to the criminal code with prison sentences. It also gives the administration new powers to sanction the media with fines, advertising bans, and bandwidth throttling."

"If the bill becomes law, it will boost the systematic censorship and self-censorship in Turkey, instead of fighting disinformation. We call for its immediate withdrawal because a media law that fails to reflect the views of journalists and journalism organizations cannot solve the problem of disinformation." stated the press institutions.

"We reject it"

Underlying that the bill cites concepts such as "disinformation," fake news," "baseless information" and "distorted information" without providing legal definitions and also refers to vague notions like "security," "public order" and "public peace,", the press institutions stated that these vague definitions and concepts have been used against journalists in trials.

"Such an approach leaves the laws open to gross abuse by a judicial system that is already suffering from political capture and a loss of independence. We reject this initiative."

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"We invite you"

Finally, press institutions invited all political actors to initiate a dialogue process with journalism organizations to solve the problems such as disinformation.

"Disinformation is the problem of the whole world. There are many other problems that reduce the quality of journalism in Turkey and harm the public's right to be informed. We invite all political actors to initiate a comprehensive and transparent dialogue process with journalism organizations to create pluralist laws, establish democratic institutions and improve self-regulation that can solve these problems, following the suspension of the current law proposal." (RT/TB/VK)