Turkey has become Erdogan’s biggest prison for journalists
Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his autocratic government, Turkey has been given the title of “The Biggest Prison for Journalists”, known in all international forums, as the series of arrests of journalists continues in the country.
According to statistics from the Turkish Journalists Syndicate, 142 journalists were detained in Turkey, while the Stockholm Center for Freedom put the number at 168, leading all countries in the world.
According to all the reports issued by international human rights organizations, Turkey has turned into an authoritarian state far from democracy, and the ruling party’s loss of the last municipal elections, held in 2019, is a hoax through which Erdogan sought to promote Turkey as a democratic state before the world, in order to remove the title of a dictator from him.
The Erdogan government is using the most repressive methods against journalists, banning thousands of articles every year, arresting tweeting, and blocking Wikipedia in Turkey. In 2018, the Turkish government blocked 3,000 stories, 77 tweets, 22 Facebook posts, 5 Facebook videos and 10 websites.
Since taking office 7 years ago, Erdogan has jailed 57 journalists for insulting the president (according to Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code), sentenced them to imprisonment and fines, while the control of the media has exceeded 90%, and repression continues for the remaining important critical media.
According to reports, the most serious problem threatening journalists in Turkey is unemployment. The number of unemployed journalists exceeds 40 in the first three months of 2019, and the number of unemployed journalists is more than 10,000. She explained that after the state of emergency was declared in Turkey in 2016, 173 media institutions were closed, and permits and passports were canceled for 8000000 journalists and 3,0000 unemployed journalists.
The Association of Turkish Journalists issued a statement: We believe that imprisoned journalists must be released as soon as possible to ensure peace in the country, stressing that despite all the repression journalists are subjected to, they will spare no effort to uncover the facts to the public, that tens of thousands of journalists are unemployed, and are unable to pursue a career
