Turkey: 108 journalists face more than a thousand years in prison

In a report titled “The Cost of Journalism”, the Turkish Journalists Association highlighted the violations of press freedom that Turkish journalists are subjected to.

According to the Turkish newspaper Duvar website, the report revealed that 108 Turkish journalists appeared in the courts last February, among them 3 faced charges that the Turkish newspaper Zaman described as new, and 3 actually received prison sentences.

The Web site Duvar quoted the report as saying: 108 journalists, with a demand of up to 1485 years in prison, were tried in 39 separate trials in February.

According to the report, during February authorities charged 53 journalists with membership in a terrorist organization, 19 journalists with spreading terrorist propaganda, 6 with violating the Meetings and Demonstrations Law, 3 with insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and 5 with 15 years in prison, 8 months, and 22 days.

In another context, journalist Güngur Arslan, who owned a local news site in northwestern Turkey, was shot dead in front of his office last February.

The report was prepared as part of the Media for Democracy/Democracy Media Project, which was established by the Society with funding from the European Union to promote pluralistic media and a free press as a guarantee of democracy in Turkey.

According to the report, eight journalists were attacked and subjected to violence during the past month, and Turkey ranks 153rd out of 180 countries in the Global Press Freedom Index 2021 issued by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in April.

For years, rights groups have routinely accused Turkey of undermining media freedom by arresting journalists and closing down media critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policies, especially after the failed coup attempt in July 2016