Turkish journalists hold banners and shout slogans during a demonstration in support of jailed journalists Can Dundar and Erdem Gul on January 10, 2016, in Ankara. (AFP)
The Turkish government has dismissed hundreds of journalists so far this year and blocked tens of thousands of websites since mid-2015, says an association for journalists in Turkey.
According to the report by the Press for Freedom Project (ÖiB), which is affiliated with the Turkish Journalists’ Association (TGC), at least 160 journalists were sacked in April alone, raising the number of dismissed journalists in the Anatolian country to a total of 894 since January.
The report also set the number of blocked websites at 104,904 since the Turkish general election in June 2015.
Moreover, a total of 33 reporters were arrested from January to April, it further said, adding that 12 journalists faced charges over “insulting” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured below).
The report also highlighted the case of Can Dundar, the editor-in-chief of center-left Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, who was given five years and 10 months of jail terms on May 6, while the paper’s Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul, was given a five-year prison sentence, both over charges “leaking state secrets.”
“Journalists chase news. Treating journalists and newspaper managers, who search for, write and publish news, as ‘terrorists’ or ‘spies’ displays the state of freedoms in the country in question,” the report said.
Freedom is a “must” for the press and the citizens’ involvement in politics is possible only through a free media, said chair of the TGC, Nazmi Bilgin, during a Saturday press conference, in which the findings of the report were announced with emphasis on the importance of press freedom to enable a modern, democratic society.
Turkey has been under fire for clamping down on journalists since Erdogan came to power in 2014, after serving as a premier over a decade.
With dozens of journalists already put behind bars, activists say Erdogan has filed hundreds of other court cases against critics, including many journalists, for insulting him since he became president.
In 2015, nearly 800 Turkish journalists were sacked, 156 others were detained, and court cases were opened against 238 members of the press, according to the Republican People’s Party deputy head, Sezgin Tanrıkulu.