The Dicle Firat Journalists’Association has published its balance sheet on repression and rights violations in the area of press freedom in Turkey for the month of January. According to the report, 88 media professionals are currently in prison.
The Dicle Firat Journalists’Association (DFG) has published a report on press freedom in Turkey in the month of January.
The association highlighted that: “Detentions and arrests of journalists continue unabated on the grounds of their news articles, interviews, video footage or photos. While the whole society demands the freedom of journalists, the judiciary is adopting an opposite attitude. The situation remained same in the previous month when more journalists were jailed. Dozens of our colleagues are currently behind bars. The insistence of the government-judiciary duo on this attitude has reached the point of eliminating the press freedom entirely. We reiterate our call; all journalists must be released without a moment to spare. We are as much insistent on protecting our profession as the government is insisted on bringing journalism under control.”
DFG pointed out that the current AKP-MHP government is not the first to try to bring journalists under control, noting that all governments from past to present have tried this but failed; “Because journalism is the conscience of society and it is impossible to place it under pressure. Repression will not succeed in finishing off journalism, destroying the truths and preventing public access to truths. On this basis, we emphasize that the government’s repression is nothing but an unavailing effort, and that journalism will continue to exist under all circumstances.”
The DFG figures on violations of press freedom in January are as follows:
*Detentions: 4
*Arrest: 1
*Assaults: 6
*Mistreatment: 1
*Restriction of work by security forces: 4
*Investigations: 6
*Lawsuits: 2
*Convictions: 5 (total sentence of 12 years, 4 months and 12 days imprisonment).
*Pending trials: 30 case files, 46 journalists
*Rights violations against imprisoned journalists: 3
*Sanction against newspapers: 1
*Sanctions imposed by Turkish broadcasting authority RTÜK: 2
*Access blocked: 30 news reports
*Number of currently imprisoned media professionals: 88 (as of February 6, 2021)