21 Jul 2016 | Europe and Central Asia, Mapping Media Freedom, mobile, News and features, Turkey, Turkey Uncensored
The failed 15 July coup, bloody and despicable, delivered a lethal blow to the already crippled democratic order in Turkey. The cabal behind the putsch has become a midwife to Turkey’s “autogolpe” or self-coup. With every step, President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) backers have introduced further restrictive sanctions.
This creeping self-coup is a prospect I raised in early 2014 with a long analysis for the German edition of Le Monde Diplomatique entitled Putsch im Zeitlupe. In that article I pointed out the parallels between the career of Alberto Fujimori, the former Peruvian president who is in prison for his corruption, and the increasingly autocratic methods employed by Erdogan.
The reaction to the totally unacceptable coup so far sadly has endorsed my theory. The reformatting of the Turkish state is now in fast-forward mode with a massive purge underway.
Tension has spilled over into academia. The head of the Supreme Board of High Education (YÖK), which itself is the product of the 1980 military coup d’état, called all the presidents of universities to an emergency meeting. It was followed by two drastic steps: YÖK issued a directive demanding the resignations of 1,577 deans across the country and, on Wednesday morning, blocked travel for all academics who were travelling abroad. YÖK also ordered all Turkish academics resident in universities in other countries to return home.
The media has been strangled even further. Within the past 48 hours, around 20 news sites were blocked by the Telecommunications Authority (TIB). On Tuesday night, the High Board of Radio and TV (RTUK) cancelled the licences of 24 TV and radio channels. The office of the press directorate announced that the press cards of 34 editors and reporters were cancelled. Officials cited “linkage with FETO structures” when explaining the bans. According to Turkish authorities, FETO is the terrorist organisation headed by the US-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, who has created a parallel state and is behind the failed coup.
The daily Özgür Düşünce, now accused of being an extension of “FETO terror organisation”, announced on Wednesday it was shutting down. The irony is that the daily that had assembled the finest core of liberal columnists who for many years struggled for a democratic order.
Also on Wednesday the editor of Meydan daily Levent Kenez and managing editor Gülizar Baki were arrested during a police raid without any explanation. Both are first class journalists.
Another drama has been developing around Wikileaks, which has published nearly 300,000 emails along with thousands of attached files from 762 mailboxes that allegedly belong to email domain of the AKP. The e-mails span between 2010 and June 2016.
Wikileaks was banned after some hours. “Turks will likely be censored to prevent them reading our pending release of 100k+ docs on politics leading up to the coup,” an earlier statement by Wikileaks read. It was later reported that ”WikiLeaks’ infrastrucutre was under sustained attack” following its announcement.
Concerns are at the alert level internationally. The International Federations of Journalists and the European Federations of Journalists contacted the Council of Europe about a series of new press freedom violations. Mapping Media Freedom has logged 18 violations of press freedom aimed at news outlets or professionals since the night of the coup attempt.
All journalists affiliated with the independent outlets know they have to work on the realistic presumption that conditions will worsen for them. If the Erdogan-led government has decided to deepen the path towards a self-coup and to utilise the extraordinary circumstances to ruthlessly settle scores with all dissent and opposition, the presumption is legitimate. All segments of civil society may soon be unable to avoid feeling they have been “taken hostage” as a result of the coup attempt that has pushed Turkey back decades.
A version of this article was originally posted to Suddeutsche Zeitung. It is published here with permission of the author.
Turkey Uncensored is an Index on Censorship project to publish a series of articles from censored Turkish writers, artists and translators.
20 Jul 2016 | Europe and Central Asia, Mapping Media Freedom, News and features, Turkey, Turkey Uncensored
The 6 March 2016 edition of Yarına Bakış, an independent newspaper print houses now refuse to publish
On Tuesday 19 July, Turkey’s independent and critical journalists, academics and law experts woke up to another day of concern and fear.
The uncertainty is driven by the lack of assurances on media freedom or even a basic respect for the rule of law. At a time when the country is purging its administration of alleged coup plotters, its leaders should be calming nerves and calling for transparency. On the contrary, President Reccep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım appear to be in favour the reintroduction of the death penalty.
The media is the most fragile element in the middle of the mess.
Arzu Yıldız, a rigorously independent expert reporter on judicial affairs, was one of the first to feel the heat. An arrest order — with no reason given — was issued against her but the police who came to her flat early on Monday morning were unable to find her. She later tweeted that, since she “had nothing to fear” she would surrender to the police. So far, no further news has been heard about her.
Colleagues I spoke to share the view that by silencing such an expert reporter the authorities may be intending to erect a wall to hide what has been “really” happening — what many of us see as a massive purge within the judiciary — where more than 2,500 members (judges and prosecutors) are sought under a mass arrest order. Yıldız knows many of them, who they are and what they stand for.
Hours after the collapse of the coup attempt, a long list of journalists “to be arrested” went into circulation. Most of them are either editors or columnists — mainly liberals and leftists — who have been writing for newspapers as Özgür Düşünce, Yarına Bakış and Yeni Hayat. They have all now been smeared as affiliates of the Gülen Movement. Can Dündar, the editor of Cumhuriyet daily, is also among those targeted.
Since the day after the bloody coup attempt a media blackout has spread. More than 10 news websites have been shut down. On Monday night it was reported that several print houses refused to print Yarına Bakış and Yeni Hayat dailies, with no reason given. The editors feel that political pressure or fear lie behind them. Yarına Bakış issued an editorial online stating that it was forced to suspend its print edition, citing oppressive measures. On Tuesday, the liberal Özgür Düşünce daily, many of whose columnists found themselves to be victims of the witch hunt, announced it was also considering discontinuing its print edition. The independent website Haberdar, that was the first to break the coup attempt story, is to radically downsize, closing its newsroom and firing staff, according to inside sources.
There seems to be agreement among Turkey’s down-trodden, critical journalists and their foreign colleagues that the “dark times” will be long lasting and it may spell an end to independent journalism altogether.
Many fear a crackdown will sweep through the Turkish and Kurdish media. There are concerns over the closure of one free outlet after the other, the financial struggles these organisations face and the journalists forced into unemployment, declared as “public enemies” or “pariahs” and left without mediums to report and comment. The situation could not be any more serious.
A version of this article was originally posted to Suddeutsche Zeitung. It is published here with permission of the author.
Turkey Uncensored is an Index on Censorship project to publish a series of articles from censored Turkish writers, artists and translators.
15 Jul 2016 | Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Mapping Media Freedom, Turkey, Turkey Statements
Index on Censorship is delighted to be one of the nine groups honoured by the Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) with this year’s Press Freedom Prize.
TGC announced on Wednesday that it was awarding a coalition of international press freedom organisations with the award “for the unique solidarity unparalleled in the past, it showed against the assaults on press freedom in Turkey, for its efforts to bring to international platforms the violation of rights and for instilling in their Turkish colleagues the feeling that they are not alone.”
The organisations – Reporters Without Frontiers, Committee for the Protection of Journalists, International PEN, International Press Institute, Index on Censorship, International Federation of Journalists, European Federation of Journalists, Ethical Journalism Network, Article 19 and World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers – have worked together in a number of ways to bring attention to the increasing attacks on media freedom by the Turkish government.
This includes press freedom monitoring and advocacy missions, petitions and joint statements to governmental and international bodies in an effort to highlight the dangerous environment in which journalists now operate.
“This is a great honour,” said Index senior advocacy officer Melody Patry, who took part in the coalition’s emergency press freedom mission last October. “Members of the press in Turkey are facing relentless attacks and for the coalition to receive this prize sends a strong message that international solidarity is crucial to supporting media freedom in the country.”
Press freedom in Turkey has declined particularly rapidly in the last six months. Some 70 incidents have been recorded on Index’s Mapping Media Freedom database since the beginning of the year, including the death of three journalists and 34 incidents of arrest and detention.
Turkey Uncensored:
Charges against five journalists must be dropped
A loud disagreement finds a common ground: Journalism is not a crime
Standing in solidarity with Turkey’s journalists
Can Dündar: Turkey is “the biggest prison for journalists in the world”
14 Jul 2016 | Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements, Turkey, Turkey Statements
(Photos: Pen International)
Charges of acquiring and divulging state secrets, membership of, and administration of a terrorist organisation brought against five journalists, including four former members of Taraf newspaper’s editorial and investigative staff, must be dropped and one of the accused, Mehmet Baransu, must be released immediately and unconditionally, PEN International, English PEN, German PEN, Swedish PEN, PEN America, ARTICLE 19, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists, the Ethical Journalism Network, IFEX, Index on Censorship, the International Federation of Journalists, Global Editors Network and Reporters Without Borders said in a joint statement today.
‘These charges are a clear infringement of the right to free expression and a free press in Turkey and must be dropped, and Baransu released. It’s yet another example of abuses by the Turkish authorities of the problematic Anti-Terror law to silence investigative journalists. The law must be reformed without delay,‘ said Carles Torner, Executive Director of PEN International.
The charges concern Taraf editor, Ahmet Altan; deputy editor, Yasemin Çongar; Taraf journalists Mehmet Baransu, Yıldıray Oğur and, a fifth journalist, Tuncay Opçin. All five journalists are facing charges of acquiring and divulging documents concerning the security of the state and its political interests punishable by up to 50 years in prison. Mehmet Baransu and Tuncay Opçin are facing additional charges of ‘membership and administration of a terrorist organization’ and face a possible 75-year prison term.
The charges are detailed in a 276 page indictment, which was accepted on 20 June 2016 by the Istanbul High Criminal Court, 16 months after the initiation of the investigation. Baransu has been held in pre-trial detention since his arrest on 2 March 2015. The journalists’ next hearing is due to be held on 2 September 2016.
The indictments and the materials presented by the prosecutor in relation to the case are open to very serious doubts, suggesting that the charges are politically motivated.
While large parts of the indictment against the journalists focuses on a series of controversial news reports, titled the ‘Balyoz (Sledgehammer) Coup Plan’[1], published in Taraf between 20-29 January 2010, about an alleged military coup to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, the charges do not, in fact, relate to this story. Indeed, the indictment does not suggest Taraf’s decision to publish the Balyoz papers was criminal and Balyoz does not figure in the specific charges presented at all.
Instead, the indictment brings charges of acquiring and divulging state secrets against the five journalists concerning the ‘Egemen Operation’ plan – an out of date military war plan to respond to a Greek invasion. However Taraf did not publish state secrets regarding this operation, as a prior judgment of the Turkish Constitutional Court affirms.
‘Beyond the simple problem of a lack of evidence, there are serious concerns regarding the indictment which suggest it has been written to obfuscate facts and to implicate the journalists in involvement in the Balyoz case, an already controversial story, to limit public support for their situation,’ said Erol Önderoğlu from Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Additionally, 46 pages of the indictment prepared against the former Taraf journalists have been copied directly from the indictment against Cumhuriyet journalists, Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, who exposed illegal arms transfers by the Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT) into Syria and were sentenced to prison for five years for this crime. The degree of direct reproduction is evident from the fact that one paragraph of the indictment even starts with the words “The Defendant Can Dündar.”
‘The fact that large parts of the indictment have been copied from another high profile case targeting journalists raises significant concerns about the motivation and professionalism of the Prosecutor: not only does this call into question the extent to which the facts and evidence of the case have been properly examined, it reinforces concerns that the charges may be politically motivated’ said Katie Morris, Head of the Europe and Central Asia Programme at Article 19.
PEN International, English PEN, German PEN, Swedish PEN, PEN America, ARTICLE 19, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists, the Ethical Journalism Network, IFEX, Index on Censorship, the International Federation of Journalists, Global Editors Network and Reporters Without Borders call on the Turkish authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Baransu and to drop all charges that the five journalists face as a result of their work in public interest. Such legal actions against journalists, result in a pervasive ‘’chilling-effect’’ among the rest of the media in the country, which is compounded where fundamental fair trial safeguards are not upheld.
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[1] These reports were based on a series of classified documents and CDs acquired from an anonymous source. They led to widespread discussion in the country, which prompted Turkish prosecutors to initiate a controversial trial against the alleged coup-plotters named in the documents. The army officers implicated in the alleged coup plot revealed by Taraf have repeatedly claimed that the evidence against them was fabricated. In 2014, Turkey’s highest court ruled that the authorities had violated the officers’ right to a fair trial, leading to fresh hearings and mass releases from prison; including releases for several officers that had previously received sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
