The Turkish government’s crackdown on independent media poses serious risks to democracy and stability, journalists from the country told a Vienna audience today at an International Press Institute (IPI) event examining media freedom in Turkey ahead of an April constitutional referendum that could vest even greater power in the hands of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. […]

Turkey’s government lacks evidence to support claims that Cumhuriyet journalists supported terrorists, so instead of bringing a failing case to trial, it is using arbitrary detention to punish them in retaliation for their work, Kadri Gürsel, one of those held, said in a letter from prison this week.    

Turkey currently holds nearly 150 journalists in prison, 120 of whom were detained in the wake of the July 2016 coup attempt that Turkey’s government blames on followers of Fethullah Gülen, a U.S.-based Muslim cleric and former-ally-turned-rival of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Nearly 30 others were already behind bars, many convicted in […]

Bu yazıyı Türkçe okumak için burayı tıklayınız Remarks by Turkey’s justice minister suggesting that the nearly 150 journalists currently behind bars in the country are terrorists, murderers or drug dealers and that no journalist is in prison due to journalistic work are “absurd and disgraceful”, the International Press Institute (IPI) said today. Justice Minister Bekir […]