Originally published on the CGS blog on February 21, 2014.
In a disturbing report on journalist safety around the globe, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recently announced that the world’s top jailer of journalists was not Iran or China, but Turkey, with freedom of the press in the country reaching its worst state in recent memory.
This NATO member state has now led the world for the two worst years on record in terms of journalist imprisonment. Turkish journalist groups have also been protesting throughout Istanbul recently, complaining of intense pressure being put on private media groups by the AK Party and the government. One journalist was even quoted as saying that “the prime minister is interfering with live reports and even subtitles.”
Making matters worse, on Tuesday Turkey’s President signed into law a highly controversial bill aimed at tightening government control of the internet. Under the new legislation, the Communications Ministry will have the authority to take down websites without a court order, and the Directorate of Telecommunications will wield similarly broad authority to restrict access to webpages at their discretion. The bill had been the subject of numerous protests throughout the country in recent weeks, but was pushed through Parliament with the support of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party.
Turkey, a country that has long held ambitions of joining the EU, is no stranger to accusations of media censorship. This legislation, however, is only the latest in a series of measures promoted by the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to curtail a variety of civil liberties in response to a chain of protests that have wracked Turkey on-and-off over the past year. The new law comes alongside a bill set to give the government greater control over the appointment of judges and prosecutors, and in the wake of a spate of arrests of protest organizers under Turkey’s Anti-Terror laws.
This new law is only the most recent indication that Prime Minister Erdogan is determined to move Turkey farther and farther away from the “Copenhagen Criteria” – standards of human rights required for EU accession. But even as President Gul signed into force the greatest threat to internet freedom yet seen in Turkey, fresh protests against the law have begun to organize. Turkey currently ranks 4th worldwide in social media usage, and the internet has been the primary tool in organizing and executing recent anti-censorship and anti-Erdogan protests.
Now faced with losing another outlet of independent voice, the Turkish people must make greater use of it than ever. The continued deterioration of the situation in Turkey holds grim implications for protesters and press freedoms globally. Around the world, concerns over internet surveillance and government control have come to a head with the Snowden leaks. Protest movements in Ukraine and Venezuela are being met with violence. Journalists from all corners of the globe face mounting pressures from their governments.
Turkey’s government presents itself as a democratic model for the Middle East, and is an EU-candidate supposedly committed to the protection of human rights and liberal democracy. The global community cannot allow heavy-handed censorship and the ignoring of protesters’ demands to be accepted as the norm in Turkey, or anywhere else.
