Turkey grave offender but part of global trend
Freedom House continues to cite Turkey for worst practices in Press Freedom report
01.05.2015
Freedom House, the Washington-based democracy watchdog, highlighted the continuing decline in Turkish press freedom in its annual global survey. Turkey now lingers at the bottom of the heap of European nations, the only one of 42 countries to be deemed “not free.” Globally, Turkey ranks in joint 142nd place (alongside Pakistan and Malaysia) out of 199 nations, a decline of eight places since last year
The report, issued this week, subtitled “Harsh Laws and Violence Drive Global Decline,” makes it clear that the deterioration of Turkish press freedoms is by no means unique. “Journalists around the world faced mounting restrictions on the free flow of news and information—including grave threats to their own lives,” it writes. It describes this downward trajectory as part of a decade long decline.
However the report describes Turkey’s poor performance as both grave in itself and part of a long term trend. It cites new oppressive legislation and and the informal use by officials to control the news through intimidation and economic incentives.
In Turkey, “new laws restricted the freedom of journalists to report on national security and empowered the intelligence service to access a wide range of information without oversight, while amendments to the internet law increased authorities power to block online content,” Freedom House says.
The report continues that the presence of media diversity should not divert attention from the ability of politicians to “tame” formerly independent outlets by exerting pressure on proprietors and creating media sectors “firmly tilted in the ruling party’s favour.”
Freedom House’s decision this time last year to downgrade Turkey from “partly” to “not free” provoked a bitter outburst among government figures and a pro-government press. Star newspaper in particular cited the Jewish origins of the organisations’s then president as being behind the change At the time, Freedom House called upon the Turkish government to join in the condemnation of what it described as “hate speech.”