Reporters Without Borders (RSF) launched a statement that gives numbers on the situation of press freedom in Turkey. According to the numbers compiled with the help of Bianet, Turkey continues to be one of the prominent journalist prisons in the world; imprisoning more than 200 journalists and media workers in the last five years. 48 journalists have spent at least a day under detainment in the year 2020 in Turkey. The reasons for the detainment include reporting news on Syrian refugees, government measures against the COVID-19 pandemic and the Kurdish Question. 63 journalists were convicted of “insulting the President” in accordance with Article 299 of the Turkish Criminal Code since the start of Erdoğan’s Presidency. Only last year, 1358 online news articles were censored after the requests of President Erdoğan, his son Bilal Erdoğan, his son-in-law Berat Albayrak, pro-government businessmen and politicians. 90 percent of the media is controlled by pro-government businessmen in Turkey, with 3,436 journalists being left unemployed in the last four and a half years. The Press Ad Institute applied 276 days of advertisement bans against oppositional journalists in the year 2020.
01.02.2020
bianet.org