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Ankara is pursuing a systematic campaign of intimidation against the Turkish media, including the prosecution and jailing of writers, and demands for those who challenge government policies or actions to be sacked, two independent investigations have concluded.
Reports issued in recent days by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the European commission point to a pattern of harassment of individual writers and broadcasters and official pressure on media company owners.
Sixty-one journalists are in prison in Turkey as a "direct result" of their work or news-gathering activities, said the CPJ. "Approximately 30% of the imprisoned journalists were accused of participating in anti-government plots or being members of outlawed political groups. About 70% of those jailed were Kurdish journalists charged with aiding terrorism by covering the views and activities of the banned Kurdistan Workers' party [PKK] and the Union of Communities in Kurdistan [KCK]."
It continued: "More than three-quarters of the imprisoned journalists have not been convicted of a crime but are being held [awaiting] resolution of their cases. Articles in the penal code give authorities wide berth to use journalists' professional work to link them to banned political movements or alleged plots.
"Some of the most frequently used articles criminalise basic news-gathering activities, such as talking to security officials or obtaining documents. Up to 5,000 criminal cases were pending against journalists at the end of 2011, according to Turkish press freedom groups."
The CPJ also said it had detected increased internet filtering of domestic news sources, including opposition and pro-Kurdish media.
The European commission's findings, part of the annual "progress report" on Turkey's EU membership application, also make disturbing reading.
"The increasing incidence of violations of freedom of expression raise serious concerns and freedom of the media continued to be further restricted in practice. The increasing tendency to imprison journalists, media workers and distributors fuelled these concerns.
"High-level government and state officials and the military repeatedly turn publicly against the press and launch court cases. On a number of occasions journalists have been fired [for] articles openly critical of the government.
"All of this, combined with a high concentration of the media in industrial conglomerates with interests going far beyond the free circulation of information and ideas, has a chilling effect and limits freedom of expression in practice, while making self-censorship a common phenomenon in the Turkish media."
The report said many prosecutions targeted writers, academics and journalists writing and working on the Kurdish issue, but also scholars and researchers. More than 2,800 students are in detention, mostly on terrorism-related charges. Legislation covering such offences was "imprecise and contains definitions which are open to abuse".
The government has not commented on the CPJ's findings, but the commission's progress report provoked sharp criticism, with the minister for EU affairs, Egemen Bagis, rejecting it as a "broken mirror", adding that it did not accurately reflect the situation in Turkey.
Burhan Kuzu, head of the parliamentary commission charged with writing a new constitution and a member of the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP), told CNN Turk television the report was rubbish.
"This is a report to be thrown in the trash. There is no trash can here, so I'm throwing it on the floor." Kuzu then threw the report on the floor, saying: "Here, I'm throwing it into the trash."
Kadri Gürsel, a leading newspaper columnist and chairman of the Turkish national committee of the Vienna-based International Press Institute said the media in Turkey was under constant pressure to toe the official line.
"More than half the print media are directly or indirectly controlled by the government's cronies and its proxy capitalists. The other half is in a hostage situation," Gürsel said. Owners and employees of opposition media faced the ever-present threat of being prosecuted or arrested, which led them to curb what they said or wrote.
"This stops them practising independent journalism. To be honest, news is not the main instinct, it is self-censorship. When news comes to the news desk, the first question that occurs, unavoidably, is: 'Does this matter harm the government interest?'"
Although the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had accumulated "unprecedented power" during nearly 10 year in office, there was virtually no public scrutiny of the AKP and no investigations into the lifestyles and business interests of ministers and their relatives.
"Since 2008 [after the party began its second term in office], there has been not one single corruption case reported by the media that could or would hurt government interests," Gürsel said.
A former national newspaper editor who asked not be identified said Erdogan had made a habit of singling out journalists whose pieces offended him, and demanding their sacking. But government pressure on media companies was usually more subtle, he said.
"You can never prove it, but I'm sure messages are sent [to media owners]. The government very often intervenes. And the media magnates want to secure sympathy or curry favours from the government. But they never leave their fingerprints," the former editor said.
Far from feeling ashamed, Erdogan and his supporters appear to believe their actions are fully justified. A report this week in the Aksam newspaper quoted Ali Özkaya, a lawyer acting for Erdogan, as saying lawsuits opened on his behalf against people who have "insulted" him in the press have had a salutary effect.
"We have to underline that cases we've opened against press have been quite a deterrent; the wording of columnists has noticeably changed especially since 2003 [when Erdogan took office]. Reporters and columnists do not exceed the dose when making criticisms any more. Insulting comments or columns have been reduced to minimum."
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Comments
24 October 2012 7:34PM
"More than half the print media are directly or indirectly controlled by the government's cronies and its proxy capitalists. The other half is in a hostage situation,"
Not as bad as in Britain then.
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Share24 October 2012 7:41PM
Turkey has a brutal repressive regime just like Syria, this should be no surprise to anyone,can we honestly expect any more from them?
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Share24 October 2012 8:02PM
We should just ignore it,
they will improve when they join the EU, when they flood the EU with their democratic thinking.
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Share24 October 2012 8:05PM
Erdogan managed to bring Aydin Dogan the owner of Hurrriyet the most popular secular paper in Turkey to his knees and this has been a warning to the rest of Turkey's press. There are papers such as Sozcu which are critical but time will tell how long they can continue until they are too much of a thorn in the PM's side or their circulation becomes too large to ignore.
It seems that Erdogan cannot take any form of criticism at all.
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Share24 October 2012 8:13PM
It is funny that this news paper hailed Erdogan and his govwrment as heros of democracy only a couple of years ago.
It is also funy that there is no mention of other gross injustices carried out against rest of the community there.
Erdogan has never been a democrat will never be at best he will pretend to be democratic.
It is not the just journalist being jailed because of their views in Turkey. It is every other segment especially the students who are most vulnerable. But you know 50% of that country voted for them so serves them right!
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Share24 October 2012 8:14PM
gosh! really?
You have some imagination haven`t you?
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Share24 October 2012 8:23PM
" Kuzu then threw the report on the floor, saying: "Here, I'm throwing it into the trash."
Hopefully the electorate will put you in the trash in the next election. you will be forever gone. And one day may be you will answer to a judge for the things you have done.
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Share24 October 2012 8:34PM
The free press is in decline all over the world, apparently. I used to read Cumhurriyet (sort of, to the extent my lousy Turkish would allow) and various English-language Ankara papers - and wonder where it was all going with regards to the government reaction. Now I know.
But I knew this kind of reaction already - in supposed democracies like Canada. The Conservative government of Stephen Harper would (if they read the Guardian and got exposure to this kind of story, which they most assuredly don't) happily take a page from Erdogan's playbook regarding suppressing the press, if they thought they could get away with it. Canada's mainstream press now seems to be entirely controlled by Josef Goebbel's long lost son, Stephen.
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Share24 October 2012 8:41PM
I cannot blame the Guardian even Ahmet Altan ,one of the most powerful columnist in Turkey , believed in Erdogan. but he is very critical of him now.
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Share24 October 2012 8:43PM
"Erdogan managed to bring Aydin Dogan the owner of Hurrriyet the most popular secular paper in Turkey to his knees and this has been a warning to the rest of Turkey's press."
"Hurriyet" is, ironically, Turkish for freedom.
It's not all bad new from Turkey - the economy is booming
(living standards doubled in 12 years)
and the military finally tamed.
Let's hope democracy works and Erdogan gets his wings clipped.
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Share24 October 2012 9:30PM
This plus Kurdish oppression plus their bizarre persecution complex over the Armenians means I never want to have any dealings with this country.
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Share24 October 2012 11:03PM
I'm sure 80 million Turks will be devastated to hear that.
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Share25 October 2012 12:02AM
I cannot believe it, Simon Tisdall writes an article finding fault with Turkey.
He normally, slavishly pushes their case in his articles. I guess even he could not ignore the reports.
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Share25 October 2012 12:47AM
Erdogan is an ignorant dictator and a wanna be neo-sultan
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Share25 October 2012 12:51AM
In the 1990s Erdogan was recorded giving a speech about 'Democracy is not our aim, but a tool to achieve what we want (read Islamist regime here)'
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Share25 October 2012 1:45AM
they can dream about it!
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Share25 October 2012 1:50AM
Most Turkish government opposition including university rectors, professors, artists, generals who claim secularism and are against the government policies find themselves in prison for lenghty periods without judgements under imaginary coup plots .
When is EU commisioning a proper research into human rights abuses other than supporting Turkey screaming jihad to Syria? Amnesty where art thou?
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Share25 October 2012 7:02AM
Come on, this can not be true, all Western press and politicians encouraged and praised this unwholy islamofascists as "mildly islamist and reformist". Now you have got your reforms, penny drops but thousands continue to suffer injustice and abuse every day.
AKP is the modern Al-Kaide. Erdogan = Osama
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Share25 October 2012 8:25AM
The ordinary citizens are harassed, too.
Students are in jail because they demonstrated for free education.
Whenever there is a demonstration that the government doesn't like, demonstrators are gassed.
Women are in worse conditions because he was a role model for millions of uneducated men with his misogynistic attitudes.
All, after the West's beloved liberal Islamist came to power. We have been saying that this man is no libertarian, but nobody listened. You guys supported him. And we are the ones to suffer.
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Share25 October 2012 8:31AM
Erdoğan's dead?
Seriously, though, that's a terrible analogy.
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Share25 October 2012 8:34AM
Why is it that Simon spells "Gürsel" with the "ü" but not "Erdoğan" with the "ğ"?
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Share25 October 2012 10:36AM
What about the foreign press corps in Turkey? Why do they not tell us anything much?
A) Because they just copy the enfeebled Turkish media?
B) Because they are nobbled by a pro-government association in Istanbul which gives them pre-emptive briefing on how wonderful everything now is and they just parrot its messages
C) Because in these days of the Internet and shrinking newspaper revenues, there aren't many foreign correspondents left to report.
And when will Amnesty International wake up to the situation in Turkey? It seems to have snoozed through many human rights horrors.
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Share25 October 2012 11:51AM
Maybe he has a German keyboard. U (with 2 dots) is quite a common occurance, while you non-sounding g (with a squiggle) is pretty unique to Turkey
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Share25 October 2012 11:58AM
"they will improve when they join the EU, when they flood the EU with their democratic thinking"
I don't think Turkey has a hope in hell of joining the EU - not in my lifetime. Why ?
1 - I do not believe they are interested in joining (except for some the youth who are desperate to travel, but find it difficult right now) - Turkish heads seem to be pointing south-east rather than North-west while the Muslim world seem to hold their success in high esteem
2 - Not sure Cyprus will vote "for"
3 - There is a chance France, Austria and Holland will veto entry if the Cypriots don't
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Share25 October 2012 1:06PM
Many of us wish that he was!
It is not a terrible analogy when you understand that there is no such thing as a "mildly Islamist" party. Both AKPs are Islamist and if you told Erdogan that he is not a proper hard line Kuran follower, he would be extremely offended. Erdogan is and Osama was hardline Islamists, as Erdogan put it in his naive days, he is using a vehicle different to those used by his predecessors, he will abandon the vehicle(democracy) when he reaches where he wants to be.
Thick heads in the USA and Europe are just beginning to realise that he is certainly reaching the destination he planned all along. A non-secular, Islamic theocracy not too dissimilar to Iran. All I can say to those clever think tanks, British government and other CIA followers : ENJOY!
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Share25 October 2012 2:36PM
its not fair to single out discrimination against kurdish minority and reporters. erdogan is not a democrat has never been one. He is a dictator happened to be elected via a democratic system.
also papi, turkey is nowhere near syria (or was) but it is on a straight road of becoming another iran.
the majority -55%- of the public is happy with this direction, and the remaining 45% is pretty much helpless and hopeless...
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Share25 October 2012 7:24PM
Hey Pals,
This news has been designed wrong. First of all it is not the Turkish media which is under the repression. İt always has been the Kurdish Media in Turkey that is turtored. The Turkish media on the other hand is very radical secular and fascist by its nature. 99 % of the members of Turkish media were very happy with what have been done to the Kurds and their institutions. They always supperted the military operations on the Kurds which devastated more than 2 thousands Kurdish villages in 90s. This turkish media was always silent against the Kurds and now Erdoğan thinks that its turn of Turkish fascistos of Turkish media.
If in the past, the turkish media were not so fascist but democrat, they probably would never meet this situation of today which they claim that they are under suppression.
They got what they deserve. and I wish by God, they will have more..
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Share25 October 2012 8:02PM
Can we have the English version of this gibberish please?
I've been in Istanbul while the hustings have been taking place, with very senior members of the party walking round the spice markets pressing the flesh of all and sundry, including Erdoğan's brother. It's all a triumph of style over substance.
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Share25 October 2012 8:06PM
Your facts are wrong! If you can call them facts. In Turkey the problem is not so much the media, kurdish or turkish or whatever.
The problem is that there is simply not enough freedom whatever the ethnic origins. Is there enough demand about freedom and free society from the majority of the Turks and kurds? No there is not they are simply content with being alive. In fact most of the people prefer to have an otocratic dictatorship than total democracy. Religion they have prevents them from free thinking and tolerance. Look how many woman are killed in Turkey in the last 12 months alone, Majority of them in Kurdish areas I may want to add. So a few jornos in jail. Do you really think this people give a fuck about it? Do you really think they care about what appears in international press? Fat chance!
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Share25 October 2012 11:09PM
if you didnt understand my point because of my bad english, then why the fuck you respond? stop insulting people, first try to be a human.
"I've been in Istanbul while the hustings have been taking place, with very senior members of the party walking round the spice markets pressing the flesh of all and sundry, including Erdoğan's brother. It's all a triumph of style over substance." what the fuck is this? who gives shit to this complicated, well organized and of high quality english?
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Share25 October 2012 11:54PM
well, thank you for your facts :) what I want to say is "if Kurds are not free, nobody is gonna be free." there are severel segments of society in turkey. (turks, kurds, sunnis, alawis, seculars, religious people) and they are all being used against each other to stop their struggles for freedom.
But, I do agree with you that Kurds are not pushing hard enough to get their rights. despite all the bombings of Ak Party government in Kurdish area of Turkey, people are still voting for the ruling party. BDP (pro-Kurdish party) slightly wins some minucipalities in T-Kurdistan. (the cities: Wan, Bingöl, Bitlis, Siirt, Iğdır)
Kurds are not nation consicious unfortunately. Thats why they cant compose a uniquie democratic block so that the democracy in Turkey can flourish.
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Share26 October 2012 1:31AM
The people of Turkey live a 'lie' and are bred in 'falsehood'
Turkey has never been tolerant of free speech, freedom of the media and political freedoms. The majority of the Turkey's Turkish population have to put up with the one sided, highly edited and distorted stories of the Turkish media that simply 'fabricate' on behalf of the government-in the same way the North Korean media praises its dear leader- This is not an exaggeration as the Turkish PM Erdogan threatens and sues any journalist who dares to criticize him or his policies-
Many Journalists have been sacked- Nuray Mert is a female Journalist and intellectual sacked by her employer for being critical of the government-just one example-There are hundreds. The Kurdish people are better informed because they are usually in the midst of the chaos and the war, however , the PM Erdogan now targets the BDP Block MPs who support democratic freedoms, with mob-lynch attacks of which there have been many- by virtue of his threatening language that appears to condone violence against his opponents.
It goes without saying, it gets more brutal- Journalists get killed, tortured and attacked. The fact is the vast majority of the Turkish people live a 'Lie' in their own country as they are given a completely different picture of their own country -in fact we know Turkey and its government much better than the people who live there- This falsehood can only perpetuate in dictatorships and authoritarian regimes- Turkey is no different-
A dictatorship portrayed as a democracy - a blatant 'Lie'.
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Share26 October 2012 8:44PM
Again wrong facts.
Explain to me please can a person be sunni and kurdish? Or Turkish and sunni or alwi and turkish or alawi and kurdish. Your answer will be yes to all of the above. I don`t understand why people insist on highlighting ones religious faith. The kurds do have some problems in wherever they live but to say that no one will be free unless kurds are free is an oversetimating the importance or effects I should say.There are many kurds who feel perfectly fine in Turkey, many who opposes PKK and and kurdish agenda. There are some who believes kurds are centre of universe whicever you may be. Kurds are largely uneducated and easy to manipulate in every way. They still have the feodal system carrying on entire villages owned by local agas with the people in it. Don`t blame Turkey for every problem you have. If you sort out some of these problems you will find the life will get better and many turks will join you in your struggle to get more freedom than.
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