The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) conducted its annual press conference in Strasbourg on Thursday, where it was revealed that Turkey single-handedly surpassed the remaining 46 states in the Council of Europe (CoE) in terms of cases involving violations of the right to freedom of expression in 2014.
According to the data disclosed by the ECtHR, Turkey is responsible for 24 out of the 47 violations as determined by the ECtHR; only Hungary with seven infringements came anywhere near Turkey in this category.
According to the data disclosed by the ECtHR, Turkey also ranks poorly in terms of the right to liberty and security with 45 infringements determined by the ECtHR, coming second only to the Russian Federation, which has 56 violations to its name. Turkey is also the leader for violations of the right to a fair trial — as articulated in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) — with 31 violations.
The data on countries dating from 1959 to 2014 further casts a shadow on Turkey’s reputation for respecting human rights and freedom of expression showing 248 violations of freedom of expression, 671 violations of the right to liberty and security and 801 violations of the right to a fair trial.