Crackdown on journalism mounts in Turkey

Breaking journalists’ pen nibs, Turkish authorities arrested nineteen journalists in a crackdown on Wednesday morning in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakır on accusations of “publishing terrorist news,” while the Turkish parliament is considering a bill that would further restrict press freedom.

The Turkish police arrested the journalists from their homes and news outlets, announced the International Press Institute (IPI), which voiced its concerns.

“These arrests represent the continuation of the ongoing judicial harassment towards journalists reporting from the southeast region of Turkey,” Turkey Programme Coordinator Renan Akyavaş said in the statement.

The arrested journalists include “Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) Co-Chair Serdar Altan; Mesopotamia News Agency (MA) editor Aziz Oruç; and journalists Ömer Çelik, Suat Doğuhan, Ramazan Geciken, Berivan Karatorak, Esmer Tunç, and Mehmet Şahin,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced that local media reported that the number of arrested reporters reached 21. However, the CPJ said in a statement on Wednesday that the committee confirmed only the detention of nine journalists so far.

The number of journalists detained for their duties has increased to 293 reporters from 280 in 2021 globally, according to CPJ data. Turkey ranked number six with the highest number of detained journalists, reaching 16 reporters in 2021.

Meantime, 23 international press defense groups in a joint statement on Wednesday called upon the Turkish authorities to withdraw a bill allowing imprisonment of journalists for “spreading disinformation.”

The press defense groups include the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ).

On May 26, a total of 66 lawmakers from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) submitted a bill amending the Press Law and several other laws, the statement said.

The controversial bill stipulates that: “In this context, it is evident that the act of intentionally producing and disseminating fake news (disinformation) has become a serious threat that ... prevents the citizens' rights to access true information.”

Publishing “disinformation” is publishable by 1-3 years in prison, according to the new amendments.