BİA MEDIA OBSERVATION / OCTOBER-NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2021: There is gain in journalist rights, but there is also anxiety!

Infographic: Yağmur Karagöz / bianet

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Government, to the 2023 elections While continuing to limit critical reporting and social media through administrative and judicial means on the way to the road, journalists started to gain various gains, especially from the State Council, against various anti-democratic practices such as press cards and the police circular against viewing social protests.

During the period of October – November – December 2021, nine journalists were sentenced to prison under the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) and the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), while 36 journalists were acquitted.

BIA MEDIA OBSERVATION/OCTOBER-NOVEMBER-DECEMBER

CLICK – There is both gain and concern in the rights of journalists!

CLICK – Day by day quarterly media/freedom of expression

CLICK- Regulations, reaction s, solidarity, unemployment

CLICK- BIA Media Monitoring Reports

bia Media Monitoring Report shows that these positive developments have not overshadowed the files of Cumhuriyet and Sözcü newspapers brought to the Court of Cassation, and the threat of imprisonment, which is still prevalent in dozens of journalists’ cases that are still ongoing.

Threats of imprisonment and compensation to 214 journalists

Report, October – It reveals that at least 214 journalists were prosecuted on 23 different charges, mainly “propagandizing for a terrorist organization” and “membership in a terrorist organization”, in 81 cases in the period of November – December 2021. During the period in question, at least 62 journalists were accused of “membership in a terrorist organization” and at least 14 of them “making propaganda for a terrorist organization”.

“Insulting the President”: 4 out of 22 defendants were convicted

In the reporting period, the total Number of journalists and cartoonists facing the threat of 102 years and 8 months imprisonment 22 became.

In the report, Ahmet as a journalist Sever, Engin Korkmaz, Ender İmrek, Hasan Cemal, Mehmet Emin Kurnaz, Gökhan Biçici, Deniz Yücel, Kaan Göktaş, Hüseyin Aykol, Reyhan Capan, Hasan Başak, Kemal Yakut, Yılmaz Odabaşı, Perihan Kaya, Atilla Taş, Rüstem Batum, Hayko Baghdad , Doğan Ergün, and cartoonist Julien Serignac, Gerard Biard, Laurent Sourisseau from Charlie Hebdo magazine, and cartoonist ‘Alice’. Yılmaz Odabaşı, Perihan Kaya and Doğan Ergün were sentenced to 11 months and 20 days in prison, while Kaan Göktaş was sentenced to 2 years in prison. The investigation against Ender İmrek was new.

One of the five attacks is from Muharrem Sarıkaya

In the period of October – November – December 2021, at least five journalists were subjected to physical violence. While following news and press releases, nine reporters encountered obstacles, violence or threats from law enforcement or threats from third parties. A journalist’s house was raided by the police. The fact that the perpetrator of one of the physical attacks belonged to HaberTürk TV representative Muharrem Sarıkaya caused intense reactions in the media rights community.

14 detention, the order of arrest is “citizen journalist”

At least 14 journalists were detained between October – November – December 2021. While six of the journalists were watching various protest actions, three of them were following the news, four journalists’ houses were raided and one Syrian journalist was detained because of the news he brought to the agenda. Eight journalists, including two Russians, were detained in the same period of last year. Citizen journalists who interviewed citizens came to journalists: A citizen journalist who made street interviews during the period of October – November – December 2021 was arrested together with the person he interviewed, and then he was released.

Access to 554 news in three months ban and two broadcast bans

In the last three months of last year, when AKP Chairman and President Erdoğan targeted social media with the word “digital fascism” and other government representatives threatened “media organizations benefiting from foreign funds”, Criminal Judgeships of Peace on very broad issues such as bribery, corruption, irregularity, nepotism, violence, sexual harassment, and With the decisions they made, they blocked access to at least 547 news in internet news channels by highlighting “personal rights”.

Among the censored content were the columns of journalists Çiğdem Toker, Fatih Polat and İhsan Çaralan. The Access Providers Association (ESB) also banned at least seven internet news stories. In the three months in question, a publication ban was imposed on two files, one about the throat slashing of a young person in a cult dormitory and the other about the murder of a woman. Access to 485 online news links was blocked in the same period of the previous year. The access ban on a related article was lifted.

“Insult”: 39 journalists jailed threat

During the reporting period, at least 39 journalists were named in criminal cases brought on charges of “insulting a public official” and “insulting” . To İsmail Saymaz, one of the cases in which a total of 101 years and 9 months prison sentence is referred, From bianet to Evrim Kepenek, from Özgürüz to Onur Öncü, and upon the complaint of President Erdoğan’s son Bilal Erdoğan, Cumhuriyet newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief Serkan Ozan, Editor-in-Chief Olcay Büyüktaş Akça, Internet News Director Ozan Yurtoğlu and reporter Hazal Ocak were new. In the same period, an investigation was launched against Cumhuriyet newspaper writer Barış Pehlivan.

Five journalists during the period of October – November – December 2021 and two daily newspapers has been the subject of compensation lawsuits totaling 3 million 480 thousand TL, filed by various financial entrepreneurs and politicians. The lawsuit filed by Sezgin Baran Korkmaz against Sözcü writer and journalist Uğur Dündar was new. In the same period, the 2 million TL non-pecuniary damage lawsuit filed by AKP Ankara Deputy Asuman Erdoğan’s wife Fatih Erdoğan and Pacific Gayrimenkul Yatırım İnşaat AŞ against Cumhuriyet newspaper and Cumhuriyet Foundation Secretary General and columnist Işık Kansu was rejected

. Intense struggle “against impunity” from journalists

During the reporting period, the trial of three police officers who used violence against Beyza Kural, former bianet.org reporter, continued after the Constitutional Court’s decision of violation. The trial of seven judges and prosecutors on the grounds that Mehmet Altan’s compensation case against the judges of the 26th and 27th High Criminal Courts of Istanbul, who did not release him despite the Constitutional Court and ECHR decisions, and that they arrested Ahmet Şık for conspiracy in March 2011 for his draft book “Imam’s Army” continued. . Müyesser Yıldız sentenced the Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu to a compensation of 1 TL. The case file of those who attacked Yeni Çağ newspaper columnist Yavuz Selim Demirağ was brought to the High Criminal Court.

Uğur Mumcu in the 90’s, Two cases regarding the murder of Bahriye Üçok, Muammer Aksoy and Ahmet Taner Kışlalı are still not concluded in Ankara. 27 years later, nobody is on trial for those who ordered the attack on Özgür Ülke.

“late but important” decisions from the Constitutional Court and the ECHR
In the period of October – November – December 2021, the Constitutional Court (AYM) made a pilot decision from nine applications, albeit late, regarding the news in some news outlets including Diken, Gazete Wall and Artı Gerçek.
At the same time, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) charged Turkey 16 thousand euros for violating freedom of expression due to the detention of journalist Nazlı Ilıcak. (approximately 260 thousand TL) compensation. In this period, the ECtHR, with the decision of Vedat Şorli, made an important decision regarding the anti-democratic essence of the regulation of “insulting the President”, which has been turned into a silencing tool since August 2014, when Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected President.
28 fines from RTÜK, 2 suspensions of broadcasting
In this period, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), the media close to the government It was criticized for being biased in favor of its institutions. In the period of October – November – December 2021, TV companies were fined 28 and suspended 2 times for broadcasting news and programs. No action was taken against radio companies during this period. The Board fined TV companies with an administrative fine of 5 million 469 thousand 679 TL in total.

Crisis in four workplaces: 58 unemployed journalists

In the period of October – November – December 2021, especially with the administrations at Cumhuriyet, Gazete Wall, Halk TV and Haber Global Following the crises, at least 58 journalists, columnists and media workers were either fired or forced out of their jobs. 24 journalists who left Cumhuriyet and 10 of whom worked for the newspaper for more than 20 years criticized the “One-man administration” while leaving the newspaper.

The termination of the contracts of 180 employees with the closing of Olay TV after 25 days of broadcasting was the main reason for the unemployment of 187 media employees in the same period of the previous year.

(SA/EÖ/NÖ)

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