Turkey’s crackdown on the free media continued in the month of February: A total of 24 journalists were detained by police and five were formally arrested and sent to prison, based on separate reports compiled by independent newspaper Evrensel and online news website Gazete Karınca.
In February 120 journalists appeared before judges and 13 were convicted. Photo-journalist Çağdaş Erdoğan and Die Welt correspondent Deniz Yücel were released from prison. Former BirGün newspaper editor Burak Ekici was also released on the grounds that he had already stayed in prison for a long time, although he was convicted to six months and three months in prison.
Currently, the number of imprisoned journalists and media workers in Turkey is 152 according to a list kept by the Media and Law Studies Association MLSA.
Six people sentenced to life
In the harshest indicator of the threats journalists in Turkey face, Journalist and novelist Ahmet Altan, his brother Mehmet Altan and journalist Nazlı Ilıcak, as well as three media workers, were sentenced to life without parole on charges of “attempting to overthrow the Constitutional order.” Both domestic and international organizations harshly reacted to the sentences.
However, Turkish courts weren’t satisfied with life. About two weeks after the life sentence, another court handed down a five-month-and-11-day sentence to Ahmet Altan on charges of “propaganda on behalf of a terrorist organization” and “insulting the president of the Republic of Turkey.”
Other convictions
Muhammet Dorğu, a reporter for the shuttered Dicle News Agency (DİHA) was handed down a sentence of eight years and six months on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “propaganda on behalf of a terrorist organization”. Journalist and writer Nurcan Baysal was handed down a 10-month prison sentence for an article she wrote about operations conducted by Turkish security forces in the predominantly Kurdish-populated regions of the country during curfews announced in that area. Journalists Bedran Babat and Mustafa Ece were sentenced to five months in prison for violating the Turkish Penal Code Article 301 which criminalizes, among other things, insulting state organs, over a 2015 news report.
Turkey’s Television Authority to supervise internet broadcasts
In what has been largely regarded as an even stricter and newer form of censorship online, a subcommittee of the Turkish Parliament in February adopted a new bill which will allow the Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTÜK) to supervise and cancel the licenses of online broadcasters just like regular television stations.
Although the bill has not been passed into law, RTÜK has already issued a fine to Show TV, for vulgar language that was not bleeped out in the online version of an episode of the TV series “Çukur” (Pit). The station was fined TL 1 million for “offensive language,” and an additional TL 260,000 over kissing scenes on the grounds that they “disrupt the morals of young people.”
Offline RTÜK, fined Yaşam TV TL 13,000 for airing songs in Kurdish.
