ANI News


By John Solomou
Feb. 14, 2022

Nicosia [Cyprus], February 14 (ANI): The Turkish government, under
autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been suppressing press
freedom in the country and has been exercising almost complete control
of the Turkish mass media for many years, but recently it has embarked
on an attempt to control what foreign media report about developments
in Turkey.

Last week, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK), which is
Turkey's broadcasting watchdog, has given a 72-hour deadline for the
Turkish services of the international news outlets of Voice of America
(VOA), German Deutsche Welle (DW), and Euronewsto apply for a license.

The deadline was accompanied by the threat that if they failed to
comply and obtain the online broadcasting licenses, they would be
banned. The regulator has the right to go to court, at the expiration
of the deadline, and close down the websites, which feature also video
news.

Bridget Serchak, a Voice of America spokesperson for the US
state-owned broadcaster, said: "VOA believes any governmental efforts
to silence news outlets is a violation of press freedom, a core value
of all democratic societies."

In another statement, the Voice of America declared that it would do
its best to ensure that its audience in Turkey "has free and open
access to the Internet if its Turkish service is blocked by the
Turkish government."

So far, the reaction of the other two international media outlets has
not been disclosed.
Commenting on the decision, Journalist Ilhan Tasci, of the opposition
Republican party, who is also a member of the RTUK, said: "This
decision means that for the first time international broadcasters have
become the target of the media watchdog on in addition to regional
channels. It constitutes in all respects a direct interference with
the freedom of the press."

It should be noted that according to a regulation published in July
2019 "media service providers and internet transmission platform
operators that wish to provide radio or audiovisual services on the
internet are required to obtain a license or authorization from the
Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTSC) according to the type of
service they provide.

Since the new regulation went into effect, various streaming platforms
including Netflix and Amazon Prime have applied for and received
licenses. However, this is the first time that the RTUK used this
authority for the three international news websites.

Erdogan has used RTUK as a tool of increasing censorship as the
broadcasting watchdog frequently imposes punitive sanctions on
independent television and radio stations and websites which are
critical of the Turkish government.

Indicative of the repression of any criticism of Erdogan in the media
is the arrest last month of Sedef Kabas, a well-known journalist for
citing a proverb during a political discussion on opposition TV
channel Tele 1 and repeated on Twitter, which was seen as a swipe at
Turkey's President.

The prosecutor also asked Kabas to be charged with insulting Interior
Minister Suleyman Soylu and Transportation Minister Adil
Karaismailoglu, for a combined jail term of 11 years.

As a Human Rights Watch report published in October 2020 points out:
"Turkey's press freedom crisis is worsening amid growing state capture
of media, the lack of independence of regulatory institutions, and a
new social media law designed to clamp down on the remaining spaces
for free comment...Social media platforms, as well as online news
sites, are among the last bastions for critical journalism in Turkey
following the state-led takeover of mainstream media."

In October 2020, a Turkish court decision declared one of the most
prominent journalists in Turkey, Can Dundar, former editor of
Cumhuriyet, a fugitive and confiscated his assets. Dundar was arrested
in November 2015 after his newspaper published footage showing the
State Intelligence MIT sending weapons to Syrian Islamist fighters.
Since June 2016, he is living in exile in Germany.

The Radio and Television Supreme Council has imposed arbitrary fines
and temporary suspensions of broadcasting of several media outlets
such as Halk TV, Tele 1 TV, and Fox TV, which include content critical
of the government.

In February 2018, a Turkish court sentenced journalists Mehmet Altan,
his brother Ahmet Altan and Nazli Illicak to life imprisonment after
finding them guilty of "involvement in the 2016 coup attempt."

Women journalists in Turkey are in a particularly vulnerable position.
The Coalition For Women in Journalism (CFWIJ) in its report titled:
"Press Freedom Status for Women Journalists" says: "Turkey is one of
the most dangerous countries with cases of legal harassment and
intimidation by the state."

The report sheds light on a total of 77 cases of violations against
women journalists worldwide, in which Turkey leads as the country with
the most frequent cases of legal harassment. 36 of the 77 cases in
total that include murders, abduction, detentions, and physical
assaults were reported in Turkey, followed by Pakistan with nine
cases.

Scores of journalists remain behind bars in Turkey or are continuously
harassed and face a trial because they criticize, even mildly, the
Government or President Erdogan's one-man rule.

Many journalists and people working in the media are in pretrial
detention or serving sentences for terrorism offences because of their
journalistic work.

The state is using the judiciary over which it has increased control
to send to jail its critics on bogus charges, without compelling
evidence of criminal activity. It also misuses the regulatory bodies,
like the RTUK and the Press Advertising Authority (BIK), to punish and
financially cripple independent media.

One can easily see the repression of freedom of thought in Turkey from
the fact that in 2021, just like the previous year, Turkey ranked
first among the 47 Council of Europe (CoE) member states in the number
of judgments from the European Court of Human Rights concerning
violations of freedom of expression.