The Committee to Protect Journalists on Tuesday joined 55 partner organizations in a joint letter to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, to ask her to act on Turkey’s temporarily shelved foreign “influence agent bill,” which introduces a vaguely defined new offense called “committing a crime against the security or political interests of the state” under the direction of a foreign group or state.
The signatories voiced their concerns about how the proposed law could be used to silence government critics if passed by the parliament, along with its predictable effects on rights and freedoms in Turkey. They asked the European Commission to “publicly call on Turkey to fully withdraw the bill,” “prioritize freedom of expression in EU-Turkey relations,” and “raise this matter at high-level dialogues with Turkey,” while supporting the civil society.
Read the full letter here.