Turkey is ranked 154th among 180 countries in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). According to the Stockholm Center for Freedom’s “Jailed and Wanted Journalists in Turkey” database, 175 journalists are currently behind bars in the county, while 167 are wanted and are either in exile or remain at large.
According to the “BİA Media Monitoring Report 2020, Turkish courts handed down sentences totaling 103 years to 23 journalists in 2020. The journalists received the sentences on various charges that included “insult,” “espionage” and “membership in a terrorist organization.”.
Forty-eight members of the press were detained in 2020, the report said, adding that 430 journalists had been taken into custody in the last five years, with 2016 seeing the highest number, at 201 detentions.
According to the report, at least 18 journalists were assaulted in 2020 with seven more threatened, while the number of attacks targeting press members within the last five years has reached 139.
Throughout 2020, access to at least 1,358 URLs containing news items on issues of corruption, irregularities, drug dealing and sexual abuse in Turkey was banned by the penal courts of peace, while access blocks were also imposed on 24 news websites.
The press cards of some 150 international media representatives were not renewed, while at least 27 journalists critical of the government had their press cards canceled in the same period, the report further revealed.
A total of 215 journalists and media employees were dismissed from their jobs in 2020, mainly due to pressure from government circles, which led to some being forced to resign over ideological differences related to broadcasts, or after their programs were canceled.
Following a coup attempt in July 2016 that claimed the lives of more than 250 civilians, Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government increased its crackdown on media outlets and journalists critical of it under the pretext of an anti-coup fight.
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