Thursday

23rd Mar 2023

Opinion

Is Turkey's crackdown on journalists starting to crack?

  • Since the failed coup against Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016, at least 180 media outlets have been shut down and scores of journalists have been jailed on baseless "terrorism offences" - many charged as a result of posts they have shared on Twitter (Photo: Flickr)

"Accusing journalists of aiding terrorists because they do not toe the regime's line is the first step to a totalitarian state," journalist Sue Turton told me a few years ago.

Turton - the force behind the #FreeAJStaff campaign which helped release three Al Jazeera journalists jailed in Egypt in 2013 – was offering thoughts on how to secure the release of more than 100 journalists unjustly detained in Turkey.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Joe Biden meets Erdogan as then US vice president. His new administration has taken a much harder line on human rights in Turkey, calling out a series of 'significant human rights issues' (Photo: tccb.gov.tr)

The country is among the world's biggest jailers of journalists for the fifth year in a row, and was ranked 153 out of 180 countries in the newly-published World Press Freedom Index, between Belarus and Rwanda.

Since the failed coup attempt in July 2016, at least 180 media outlets have been shut down in Turkey and scores of journalists have been jailed on baseless "terrorism offences" -many charged as a result of posts they have shared on Twitter, cartoons they have drawn or opinions they expressed.

Covid-19 has brought additional fears for journalists behind bars.

Last week, Turkey entered its second lockdown - but overcrowding and unsanitary facilities has been a concern long before the pandemic that already posed a serious health threat to Turkey's prison population.

So how can we help get them out of jail?

"My advice is to build international solidarity," Turton tells me. "When my colleagues were convicted in Egypt, we knew our best weapon was the solidarity of the media all over the world".

So we did just that. On World Press Freedom Day 2017, Amnesty International together with several other prominent human rights organisations launched the Free Turkey Media campaign.

Four years on, more than 250,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the immediate release of Turkey's journalists. Thousands of others have posted 'solidarity selfies' on Twitter, and leading journalists, politicians and celebrities have joined the call too.

Exile, or pre-trial detention

And yet, the situation for journalists in Turkey remains dire.

Some of the country's most respected journalists – Turkey's equivalent of Christiane Amanpour, Medhi Hassan and Anderson Cooper - are exiled, facing investigations or are behind bars. Some are serving absurd life sentences, many others are held in pre-trial detention on baseless charges.

According to international human rights law and standards, pre-trial detention must be an exceptional measure only to be applied if other alternatives are not suitable to prevent a substantial risk of flight, harm to others or interference with the evidence or the investigation.

Whereas deprivation of liberty should only occur as a last resort, it is applied routinely and punitively in Turkey. Its impact is devastating to the media scene in the country.

Despite the elevated risks, brave journalists across Turkey continue to do their job in a climate of fear as the authorities attempt to curtail all independent journalism and silence critical voices.

"Working under the constant threat of arrest and conviction makes life extremely difficult but journalism is our profession. We have to carry it out," says Çağdaş Kaplan, editor of the online news portal Gazete Karınca.

"There is a plainly visible truth in Turkey, but there is also an attempt to hide it from society. Somebody has to speak about it, and that's what we are trying to do."

'For journalists, Turkey is a dungeon'

"For journalists, Turkey has become a dungeon," says journalist Hakkı Boltan. His organisation - the Free Journalists Association – was ironically shut down in November 2016.

Indeed, those who used to observe court cases from the press gallery, now watch them from the dock.

But there is hope.

The new Biden administration in the US has taken a much harder line on human rights in Turkey.

A month ago, the US called Turkey out over a series of "significant human rights issues", ranging from allegations of arbitrary killings and torture to the jailing of tens of thousands of critical voices, including political opponents, lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders.

There are also signs that human rights are making their way back on to the agenda in moves to reset EU-Turkey relations.

Last month, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen met with president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and stated that "Turkey must respect international human rights rules and standards".

Is this diplomatic pressure – together with the support and solidarity of journalists and campaigners around the world – starting to have an impact?

It is too early to say, but last month, Ahmet Altan – the prominent author and former newspaper editor who was serving a 10.5-year sentence on ridiculous charges – was released following the decision by the top appeals court to quash his conviction.

In 2018, two years into his unjust imprisonment, Altan wrote: "I may never see this world again".

Although he still faces the ever-constant threat of re-arrest, the fact that today he is back home with his family offers us a light of hope amid the darkness.

Now is the moment to push back against the growing trend among governments that are locking up journalists and enacting laws used to criminalise their legitimate work.

And it is a time to make clear to governments – including in Turkey – that stifling a nation's media is a wilful act of self-harm that we, as journalists, will keep writing about until the day they come to take away our pens.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

Letter

Poland on brink of having no independent media

The time for euphemisms is over. The attack on media freedom in Poland clears the way for an all-out assault on fundamental EU values. You need to protect them, writes the editor of Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza.

EUobserved

Why not recreate the European Community?

The revival of a European Community might not be a solution that solves all problems, but it could be a positive way out of several deadlocks in which the EU finds itself.

How much can we trust Russian opinion polls on the war?

The lack of Russian opposition to the Russo-Ukrainian War is puzzling. The war is going nowhere, Russian casualties are staggering, the economy is in trouble, and living standards are declining, and yet polls indicate that most Russians support the war.

Turkey's election — the Erdoğan vs Kılıçdaroğlu showdown

Turkey goes to the polls in May for both a new parliament and new president, after incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan decided against a post-earthquake postponement. The parliamentary outcome is easy to predict — the presidential one less so.

Why can't we stop marches glorifying Nazism on EU streets?

Every year, neo-Nazis come together to pay tribute to Nazi war criminals and their collaborators, from Benito Mussolini to Rudolf Hess, Ante Pavelić, Hristo Lukov, and of course Adolf Hitler, in events that have become rituals on the extreme-right calendar.

Latest News

  1. Sweden worried by EU visa-free deal with Venezuela
  2. Spain denies any responsibility in Melilla migrant deaths
  3. How much can we trust Russian opinion polls on the war?
  4. Banning PFAS 'forever chemicals' may take forever in Brussels
  5. EU Parliament joins court case against Hungary's anti-LGBTI law
  6. Three French MEPs to stay on election-observation blacklist
  7. Turkey's election — the Erdoğan vs Kılıçdaroğlu showdown
  8. When geopolitics trump human rights, we are all losers

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality
  5. Promote UkraineInvitation to the National Demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine on 25.02.2023
  6. Azerbaijan Embassy9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us