This year, the main theme of our report is the poverty of journalists. We wanted to share in our report the extent of the poverty faced by journalists who are forced to work for low wages, long hours, and without a union. While editorial independence is one pillar of press freedom, the other pillar is economic and social rights and security. The decline in press freedom and the fact that journalists have become more economically vulnerable are not separate issues. To reveal the extent of the poverty experienced by journalists and their economic and social level, the “Poverty Survey: Economic and Social Level Survey” is also in our report.
As before, this year we are analyzing the forms of interference in freedom of the press under headings. To this end, our report includes the list of imprisoned journalists, the distribution of the crimes attributed to journalists in indictments, the status of journalist arrests in Turkey in the last year, the names released, and data on detentions and investigations against journalists. Under the heading ‘Trials‘, we have presented numerical data on the legal processes carried out against journalists in the last year and summarized the individual application decisions published by the Constitutional Court. We have also presented the current balance sheet of the crime of “Publicly Disseminating Misleading Information” (TCK 217/A), which has been used against journalists since its entry into force in 2022. We have also presented the current status of attacks against journalists and journalist murder cases.
Under the heading of ‘Interventions on the Internet‘, we have again touched upon access blocking and content removal decisions against online media in the last year. In the section titled ‘Interventions against Media Organizations‘, we have explained the interventions of RTÜK and BİK in detail. The details of all these data can be found in the tables presented in the Annex. In the section titled ‘Changes in Legislation’, we provided information on legal amendments that closely concern journalists and media organizations, as well as the lawsuits filed against these amendments.
Under the heading ‘Overview of the Sector’, we focused on data on the economic and social status of journalists, especially in the context of collective rights. Under the sub-heading ‘General Assessment of the Sector‘, we shared data on the general outlook of the sector. In the sub-heading ‘Number of Employees in Press Organizations‘, we presented the current figures on the number of registered journalists in the sector and how this number is distributed across classes. In the sub-heading ‘Two Threats: Unemployment and Precarious Employment‘, we examined two economic and social phenomena that have long put pressure on the collective rights of journalists. In the sub-heading ‘A Struggle for Dignity: A Struggle for Dignity: Trade Union Activity‘, we provided an update on the union activities carried out by TGS despite all the adversities. You can find a comprehensive assessment of the AFP and Sputnik strikes that took place during the reporting period in the sub-heading ‘AFP and Sputnik Strikes‘. We have tried to show the impact of economic instability and lengthy judicial processes on journalists’ economical claims in the sub-heading ‘Journalists’ Compensations Turned into Nothing‘. ‘Poverty Survey: Economic and Social Level’ at the end of the report.
Some numbers from the report
In the past year, at least 55 journalists have been imprisoned. While some of these journalists have been released, some of them are still in prison as detainees or convicts.
- As of April 1, 2024, 13 journalists are deprived of their freedom in various prisons in Turkey for their journalistic activities.
- Of the journalists in prison, 4 are under arrest and 8 are convicted. We have not received clear information about the current situation of one journalist.
- Of the journalists in prison, 1 is a woman and 12 are men.
In total between April 2023 and April 2024, according to available data
- At least 69 journalists were detained.
- 74 detentions were made.
- Journalists were detained for a total of 153 hours.
- 52 journalists testified in connection with investigations against them.
- 264 journalists were tried in 126 criminal cases.
- While 90 trials continued, verdicts were announced in 36 cases.
- Journalits were sentenced to 55 years, 11 months, and 21 days in total.
- 63 journalists acquitted.
- A total judicial fine of 000,00 TL was imposed.
- 2 journalists were sentenced to defer the announcement of the verdict.
- There were 14 trials with compensation claims.
- 16 journalists and 7 newspapers were tried in these cases.
- While 7 of the cases were concluded, the trials in the other 7 cases are still ongoing.
- A total of 000,00 TL compensation was awarded in these cases.
