The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) has released its Report on Violations of Freedom of Expression, Assembly and Association, covering the first eight months of this year.
Covering the eight-month period from January 1 to August 31, the report has shared the following violations:
38 journalists and one writer were detained. While 17 journalists were arrested, nine journalists were released on probation. By court orders, acces blocks were imposed on 53 news reports, 75 websites, two web pages and five social media accounts, 59 internet content and 143 internet addresses. Moreover, a book which had not yet been published and a newspaper issue were banned by court orders.
At least 24 people were taken into custody, three people were arrested and one person faced an investigation on charge of “insulting the President.” At least 675 people were detained on such grounds as “aiding and abetting the organization”, “propagandizing for the organization” and “membership of the organization”; 72 people were arrested.
Law enforcement officers intervened against at least 637 peaceful meetings and demonstrations; as a result of them, 1,346 people were detained by being subjected to torture and other acts of maltreatmen. All events and demonstrations were banned by governor’s offices for 89 times in 33 provinces; while the shortest one of these demonstration bans was for 2 days, the longest was for 30 days.
79 people elected to the local administrations such as co-mayors, municipal council members and neighborhood/ village heads were taken into custody; 16 of these local administrators were arrested. The mayors of 14 municipalities (two provincial, 11 district and two town municipalities) were dismissed and replaced with trustees by the Ministry of Interior. Based on final verdicts, three MPs were stripped of MP status and arrested.
Click here to read the full report (in Turkish)
26.10.2020
bianet.org