World - More than 120 journalists are
still being held in Turkey's jails, a global record, and the
situation of the media in the country has not improved since the
lifting of a two-year state of emergency last year, a global
press watchdog said on Tuesday.
Turkey declared a state of emergency soon after a failed
coup in 2016. It sacked or suspended 150,000 judges, academics,
military officers, civil servants and others during the two
years it was in force on suspicion of backing a U.S.-based
cleric blamed by Ankara for the coup. More than 77,000 people
were jailed pending trial.
Hundreds of journalists have faced prosecution since the
coup, mainly on terrorism-related charges, the International
Press Institute (IPI) said in a new report, adding the number of
journalists still in jail had fallen from a high of over 160.
"Behind those figures lies a story of egregious violations
of fundamental rights, with dozens of journalists held on the
most serious terrorism-related charges for months, sometimes
years, pending trial, in many cases without an official
indictment," it said.
Journalists were jailed "as a consequence of an extended,
politically motivated crackdown against the media", the report
said, adding that Turkey has been the world's "undisputed
leading jailor of journalists" for almost a decade.
Turkish officials were not immediately available for comment
on the report.
The institute said Turkey's judiciary had been flooded with
cases since the coup but had been unable to properly examine
them because a third of all judges were among those removed from
office due to suspected links to the failed coup.
Ankara says the detentions, sackings and suspensions were
necessary to safeguard national security, given that Turkey has
faced attacks from Kurdish, Islamist and far-left militants.
Critics say President Tayyip Erdogan used the failed coup as
a pretext to clamp down on dissent and strengthen his grip on
power, a charge Ankara denies.
Trials against many journalists still continue.
Last week, a Turkish court ordered prominent journalist and
author Ahmet Altan back to jail, a week after he was released
following a retrial on coup-related charges, in a case condemned
by human rights groups and by the IPI.