CPJ, partners call on European Commission to act on Turkey’s foreign influence agent bill
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…
Police detain multiple journalists in house raids across Turkey
Istanbul, November 27, 2024—Turkish authorities should stop treating journalists like terrorists by raiding their homes and detaining them, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. “Turkish authorities once more raided the homes of multiple journalists in the middle of the night, in order to portray them as dangerous criminals, and detained them without offering any…
CPJ joins call for Turkey to release arrested journalist Furkan Karabay
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined six other press freedom and free-speech advocacy organizations in a Wednesday, November 13, statement asking Turkish authorities to release recently arrested journalist Furkan Karabay. Karabay, a reporter with the independent news site 10Haber, was detained on November 8 during a police raid in Istanbul and jailed by a court…
Turkish journalist Furkan Karabay arrested over reporting on opposition arrest
Istanbul, November 11, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkish authorities to immediately free reporter Furkan Karabay, who was seized from his home at dawn on Friday after he published a report about the arrest of an opposition mayor. “Journalist Furkan Karabay is the latest in a long line of journalists who have ended…
Turkey’s parliament expected to vote on ‘foreign agent’ law this week
Istanbul, October 29, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges members of Turkey’s parliament to vote against the foreign “influence agent law” when it comes up for a vote in the Grand National Assembly this week as expected. “Unfortunately, Turkey seems to be following the regional trend of establishing a judicial tool for demonizing and censoring independent…
CPJ joins call for Turkey to restore Açık Radyo’s broadcast license
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 63 press freedom and human rights organizations, media outlets, and NGOs in an October 18 joint statement condemning Turkey’s media regulator RTÜK for canceling independent Açık Radyo‘s (The Open Radio) broadcast license as an act of censorship. In May, RTÜK fined and issued a gag order after the outlet…
Mayor threatens local journalist in Turkey: ‘We will teach him his lesson’
Istanbul, October 16, 2024—CPJ expressed deep concern after a recently released recording of an August 15 press conference included comments from Tatvan Mayor Mümin Erol, in which Erol told reporters that he would attack journalist Sinan Aygül if he could and congratulated the former mayor’s bodyguards, who attacked and hospitalized the journalist in June 2023. …
Turkey investigates Kurdish journalist for ‘spreading disinformation’ over crime reporting
Istanbul, September 23, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists urged the Turkish authorities on Monday to drop the disinformation investigation into Rabia Önver, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish news website JİNNEWS, and stop using house raids to harass journalists. “The police raid of JİNNEWS reporter Rabia Önver’s house was completely unjustified for an alleged disinformation investigation…
Turkmen journalist Ruslan Myatiev banned from entering Turkey
New York, September 12, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Turkey’s July 25 denial of entry to Ruslan Myatiev, director and chief editor of Turkmen.news, a Netherlands-based independent Turkmen news website. “Journalist Ruslan Myatiev’s account that Turkey acceded to Turkmenistan’s request to ban him is a startling suggestion of Turkey’s complicity in transnational repression with…
CPJ joins call for Turkey to ensure safety of threatened journalist Murat Ağırel
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 22 press freedom and freedom of expression groups on Wednesday in a joint statement calling on the authorities in Turkey to ensure that journalist Murat Ağırel, who has been receiving death threats because of his reporting, remains safe. The statement listed a number of incidents in which Ağırel, a…