Drop in jailed Turkish journalists belies a long-simmering press freedom crisis
In CPJ’s 2023 annual prison census, Turkey was the world’s 10th worst jailer of journalists—its most press-friendly ranking in almost a decade—with 13 behind bars, down from 40 the previous year. But the latest numbers don’t tell the full story. Turkey has consistently vied with China for the top slot in CPJ’s list of shame…
Turkish courts play whack-a-mole with independent news outlets
In March, 2020, Turkey’s Constitutional Court issued an unexpected decision, overruling a local court that blocked a news website in 2015, according to news reports. But the editor who filed the appeal with the court remains unhappy, he told CPJ via WhatsApp, because the original website remains inaccessible in Turkey — along with the 62 replacements…
As Erdoğan visits Trump, Turkey jails more journalists
Istanbul, November 14, 2019—Turkey must end its harassment of the press and stop jailing journalists simply for doing their job, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In the past week, Turkish authorities have jailed at least three journalists, and detained three others overnight, according to reports.
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of June 10
Journalist arrested A court on June 11 ordered Berzan Güneş, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya news agency, to be arrested pending trial, his employer reported. The indictment accused Güneş of “making propaganda for a [terrorist] organisation” and presented as evidence the journalist’s social media posts, going back to 2014, according to the report. The…