Press Freedom in Turkey

1 min read
02 May, 2018
Turkey - "the world's biggest jailer of journalists" - did particularly badly in the Press Freedom report by Reporter’s Without Borders, dropping down two places to be ranked 157 out of 180 countries. 

Hundreds of Turkish journalists have been jailed under Turkey’s repressive emergency power laws on terrorism charges without charge. 

Since April 2016, Turkish authorities have jailed hundreds of journalists without trial, closed more than 145 media outlets, rescinded 775 press cards, arbitrarily withdrawn journalists' passports and seized their assets without justification.

Detained journalists and closed media outlets are denied any effective legal recourse. 

Hundreds more journalists again have been made redundant, languishing at home with no prospect of ever working again.

A state of emergency has allowed the authorities to eliminate dozens of media outlets with the stroke of a pen, reducing pluralism to a handful of low-circulated and targeted publications, said Reporters Without Borders. 

Censorship of websites and online social media has also reached unprecedented levels.

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