ELİF AKGÜL

Istanbul- Pressure on the press outlets gains a new momentum after the President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's circular on “Press and Broadcasting Activities” was published in the Official Gazette on January 28. After the publication of the circular, many opponent news websites, including the websites of our news agency, Xwebûn newspaper, Yeni Yaşam newspaper, Özgür Gelecek, Alınteri, and Mücadele Birliği, have been blocked to access.

“Pressures cannot prevent news from spreading”

Barış Altıntaş, Co-Director of the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), spoke to JINHA about accelerating censorship and repression on press outlets in Turkey. “The ruling party AKP uses all means to perpetuate its illusion and the universe it creates for its supporters. But this cannot prevent news from spreading.

Recalling that “Every mechanism in Turkey is used for censorship and repression,” Barış Altıntaş said, “Just as the judiciary has turned into a weapon against those who think differently from the AKP, the existing control mechanisms for social media have turned into a weapon against the press outlets.

“The news articles about corruption of the AKP and its supporters, or Erdoğan and his family have been blocked to access directly. The news articles about crimes against women and children, murders committed by religious sects, and violence have been directly blocked to access. The access blocks are generally imposed on the Kurdish press.”

“They perpetuate the illusion they have created for their supporters”

“The main reason why they ban and block the Internet, and our rights to freedom of expression, communication, information and access to news as citizens can be violated so brutally because they have the opportunity and power to do so,” Barış Altıntaş said, “The ruling party tends to ban anything to protect the alternative universe it has created for its supporters, and to perpetuate its illusion claiming “Everything is fine in Turkey” to impose reactionary policies. Surely, all these cannot prevent news from spreading. But they may be contributing to perpetuating the illusion it has created for its supporters.”

Parliamentary proposal

Meanwhile, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Şırnak MP Nuran İmir submitted a parliamentary proposal to investigate the pressure on Kurdish press outlets. In the parliamentary proposal, she noted that only in 2021, 55 journalists and two press outlets were subjected to attacks, two journalists were killed, police conducted raids on the houses of nine journalists, 61 journalists were taken into custody and six journalists were arrested, 23 journalists were subjected to torture and ill-treatment, 11 journalists received threats, 103 journalists were prevented from covering and 17 journalists faced rights violations in prison. Nuran İmir also stated that Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) fined 12 press outlets 59 times, and imposed an access block to 112 press outlets.