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Prosecution of journalists and closure of media[edit]
See also: Turkey's media purge after the failed July 2016 coup d'état and List of media outlets shut down in the 2016 Turkish purges
- The headquarters of Nokta, an investigative magazine which has since been closed because of military pressures, were searched by police in April 2007, following the publication of articles examining alleged links between the Office of the Chief of Staff and some NGOs, and questioning the military's connection to officially civilian anti-government rallies.[107][108] The magazine also gave details on military blacklistings of journalists, as well as two plans for a military coup, by retired generals, aiming to overthrow the AKPgovernment in 2004.[109] Nokta had also revealed military accreditations for press organs, deciding to whom the military should provide information.[110]Alper Görmüş, editor of Nokta, was charged with insult and libel (under articles 267 and 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, TPC), and faced a possible prison sentence of over six years, for publishing the excerpts of the alleged journal of Naval Commander Örnek in the magazine's March 29, 2007 issue.[107] Nokta journalist Ahmet Şık and defense expert journalist Lale Sarıibrahimoğlu were also indicted on May 7, 2007 under Article 301 for "insulting the armed forces" in connection with an interview Şık conducted with Sarıibrahimoğlu.[107]
- Prosecution of media workers suspected to be linked with the Group of Communities in Kurdistan, alleged urban branch of the PKK, led to over 46 journalists being arrested as allegedly part of the "press wing" of the group in 2011. Most of them were released pending the trial under antiterrorism laws. Among them were the owner of Belge Publishing House, Ragıp Zarakolu, and his son Deniz, editor at Belge. Ragıp was released in April 2012, and Deniz in March 2014, both pending trial.[2]
- The Committee To Protect Journalists reported that in 2012 Turkey had more journalists in custody than any other country in the world.[111]
- In 2013 the opposition in Turkey claimed that dozens of journalists had been forced from their jobs for covering antigovernment protests.[111]
- In 2014 media outlets were raided and journalists jailed in connection with the governmental crackdown on the Gülen movement, a former ally of Erdogan, now disgraced. On 14 December 2014 authorities searched the premises of the Zaman newspaper and arrested several media workers, including the editor in chief Ekrem Dumanlı, as well as Hidayet Karaca, general manager of the Samanyolu Media Group, and charged them with “establishing and managing an armed terror organization” to reverse state power. Most journalists were released in the following days, pending trial.[2]
- In November 2015 Can Dündar, editor of the prominent secularist Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, and Erdem Gül, the newspaper's capital correspondent in Ankara, were jailed facing life in prison. The prosecution stemmed from an article published with the headline "Here are the weapons Erdoğan claims to not exist‟ on May 29, 2015. The images were showing MIT (Millî İstihbarat Teşkilâtı, the Turkish National Intelligence Agency) tracks sending weapons to Syria. They were arrested for “Procuring information as to state security‟, "Political and military espionage‟, "Declaring confidential information‟ and "Propagandizing a terror organization‟.[112][113][114] They were released on February 26, 2016 after the Turkish Constitutional Court ruled that their rights were violated during the pre-trial detention; the imprisonment lasted 92 days.[115] On May 6, 2016, Istanbul's 14th Court for Serious Crimes convicted both Dündar and Gül for revealing state secrets that posed a threat to state security or to Turkey's domestic or foreign interests. Dündar was sentenced to seven years in prison, reduced to five years and 10 months; and Gül to six years, reduced to five, under Article 329 of the Turkish Penal Code.[116][115]
- Reporters Without Borders said the arrests sent “an extremely grave signal about media freedom in Turkey.” This crackdown on the press, which has reached new levels in March 2016 with the seizure of opposition newspaper Zaman, one of Turkey's leading media outlets, has sparked widespread criticism inside Turkey as well as internationally. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has declared that Press freedom in Turkey is "under siege".[117] Jodie Ginsberg, the CEO of Index on Censorship, a campaigning organisation for freedom of expression, has declared that "Turkey’s assault on press freedom is the act of a dictatorship, not a democracy".[118]
- In the course of the 2016 Turkish purges, the licenses of 24 radio and television channels and the press cards of 34 journalists accused of being linked to Gülen were revoked.[119][120] Two people were arrested for praising the coup attempt and insulting President Erdoğan on social media.[121] On 25 July, Nazlı Ilıcak was taken into custody.[122]
- On 27 July 2016, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shut down 16 television channels, 23 radio stations, 45 daily newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishing houses in another emergency decree under the newly adopted emergency legislation. The closed outlets notably include Gülen-affiliated Cihan News Agency, Samanyolu TV and the previously leading newspaper Zaman (including its English-language version Today's Zaman),[123] but also the opposition daily newspaper Taraf which was known to be in close relations with the Gulen Movement.[33] Since Zaman's seizure, the newspaper radically changed its editorial policy.[124]
- In late October 2016, Turkish authorities shut down 15 media outlets, including one of the world's only women's news agencies, and detained the editor-in-chief of the prominent secularist Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, "on accusations that they committed crimes on behalf of Kurdish militants and a network linked to the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen".[125]
Government seizure of independent media companies[edit]
- On 26 October 2015, just a few day before the November 1 general elections, Koza İpek Holding was placed under a panel of mainly pro-government trustees. The company's media assets include two daily newspapers, Bugünand Millet, and two TV/radio stations, Bugün TV and Kanaltürk TV.[126] İpek Media Group was closed on 29 February 2016.[127]
- On 4 March 2016, the opposition newspaper Zaman was likewise placed under a panel of government-aligned trustees.[128] On 8 March 2016, Cihan News Agency, which was also owned by Feza Publications, placed under trustees like Zaman.[129]
- As to January 18, 2017, more than 150 media outlets were closed and their assets liquidated by governmental decrees.[56][57][130] Under emergency decree No. 687 of February 9, 2017, Turkey's Saving Deposit Insurance Fund(TMSF) will be authorized to sell companies seized by the state through the appointment of trustees.[131][132] Also, through the use of emergency decrees- such as Nos. 668 (July 27, 2016), 675 (October 29, 2016) and 677 (November 22, 2016), 178 media organizations were closed down being charged of having terrorist affiliations. As to November 2016, Twenty-four of these shut-down media organizations were radio stations, twenty- eight televisions, eighty newspapers.[133]
Removing channels from government-controlled TV satellites[edit]
Türksat is the sole communications satellite operator in Turkey. There have been allegations that TV channels critical of the AKP party and President Erdoğan have been removed from Türksat's infrastructure, and that Türksat's executive board is dominated by pro-Erdoğan figures.
In October 2015 a video recording emerged of a 2 February 2015 conversation between Mustafa Varank, advisor to President Erdoğan and board member of Türksat, and some journalists in which Varank states that he had urged Türksat to drop certain TV channels because "they are airing reports that harm the government's prestige". Later that year the TV channels Irmak TV, Bugün TV, and Kanaltürk, known for their critical stance against the government, were notified by Türksat that their contracts would not be renewed as of November 2015, and were told to remove their platforms from Türksat's infrastructure.[134]
Türksat dropped TV channels critical of the government from its platform in November 2015. The broadcasting of TV stations—including Samanyolu TV, Mehtap TV, S Haber and Radio Cihan—that are critical of the ruling AKP government were halted by Türksat because of a “legal obligation” to the order of a prosecutor's office, based on the suspicion that the channels support a terrorist organization. Among the TV and radio stations removed were Samanyolu Europe, Ebru TV, Mehtap TV, Samanyolu Haber, Irmak TV, Yumurcak TV, Dünya TV, MC TV, Samanyolu Africa, Tuna Shopping TV, Burç FM, Samanyolu Haber Radio, Mehtap Radio and Radio Cihan.[135]
The critical Bugün and Kanaltürk TV channels, which were seized by a government-initiated move in October 2015, were also dropped from Türksat in November 2015. Later on 1 March 2016 these two seized channels closed due to financial reasons by government trustees.[136]
In March 2016 the two TV channels from other wings of the politics were also removed from Türksat, namely, Turkish Nationalist Benguturk and Kurdish Nationalist IMC TV.[137]
On September 25, 2017, Turkey decided to remove broadcaster Rudaw Media Network (Rudaw), which is affiliated to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, from its satellite broadcasting on the same day voting took place on an independence referendum in the KRG.[138]
Censorship of the media[edit]
See also: Media of Turkey and Concentration of media ownership in Turkey
Censorship of sensitive topics in Turkey happens both online and offline. Kurdish issues, the Armenian genocide, as well as subjects controversial for Islam or the Turkish state are often censored. Enforcement remains arbitrary and unpredictable.[2] Also, defamation of the Head of the State is a crime provision increasingly used for censoring critical voices in Turkey.[52]
In the 2016 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, Turkey is ranked in the 151st place out of 178 countries.[139] The situation for free expression has always been troubled in Turkey.[140][141] The situation dramatically deteriorated after the 2013 Gezi protests,[142] reaching its peak after the July 15, 2016 coup attempt. From that moment on, a state of emergency is in force,[143] tens of thousand of journalists, academics, public officials and intellectuals have been arrested or charged, mainly with terrorist charges, sometimes following some statement or writing of them.[139]
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights' report on freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey, after his 2016 visits to Turkey, noted that the violations to freedom of expression in Turkey have created a distinct chilling effect, manifesting in self- censorship both among the remaining media and among ordinary citizens.[51] In addition, the Commissioner wrote that the main obstacle to an improvement of the situation of freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey is the lack of political will both to acknowledge and to address such problems.[51]
Reporting bans and gag orders[edit]
In 2017, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights noted that with regard to judicial harassment restricting freedom of expression the main issues consist in:[51]
- Backsliding in the case-law of the Turkish judiciary;
- Issues related to the independence of the judiciary and of the judicial culture;
- Defamation remains a criminal offence and causes dangerous chilling effects, in particular defamation of the President of the Republic and of public officials;
- Harassment restricted the parliamentary debate, after the lift of the immunity of parliamentarians. Most of the opposition HD Party MPs are under investigations, if not in prison;
- Great restrictions of academic freedoms: many academics were dismissed, forced to resign, suspended or taken into police custody;
- Harassment involves all sectors of Turkish society, e.g. human rights defenders. There are frequent impositions of media bans or blackouts concerning events of clear public interest and an excessive use of detention on remand.
As to January 18, 2017, more than 150 media outlets were closed and their assets liquidated by governmental decrees.[56][57][130] Under emergency decree No. 687 of February 9, 2017, Turkey's Saving Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) will be authorized to sell companies seized by the state through the appointment of trustees.[131][132] Also, through the use of emergency decrees- such as Nos. 668 (July 27, 2016), 675 (October 29, 2016) and 677 (November 22, 2016), 178 media organizations were closed down being charged of having terrorist affiliations. As to November 2016, Twenty-four of these shut-down media organizations were radio stations, twenty- eight televisions, eighty newspapers.[133]
In 2014, Turkish regulators issued several reporting bans on public interest issues.[2]
- In February 2014 it was forbidden to report on allegations of MİT involvement in the transfer of weapons to Syria.
- In March 2014 leaked audio recordings of a national security meeting at the Foreign Ministry were put under gag order.
- In May 2014 the Supreme Council of Radio and Television (RTÜK) warned broadcasters to refrain from showing materials deemed “disrespectful to feelings of the families of victims” after the Soma mine disaster. The country worst mining disaster, causing 301 deaths, remained absent from most mainstream media outlets.
- In June 2014 a reporting ban was issued concerning the kidnapping by ISIL of 49 Turkish citizens from the Turkish consulate in Mosul, Iraq.
- In November 2014 a court in Ankara issued an unprecedented reporting ban on a parliamentary inquiry into corruption allegations concerning four former ministers.
- In September 2014 the premises of the online newspapers Gri Hat and Karşı Gazete were raided and searched by police after they had published information on the alleged corruption scandal. The police demanded the removal of online information, despite only having a search warrant.[2]
In 2012, as part of the Third Reform Package, all previous bans on publications were cancelled unless renewed by court - which happened for most leftist and Kurdish publications.[2]
Academics are also affected by government's censorship. In this regard, the case of the Academics for Peace is particularly relevant:[64] on January 14, 2016, 27 academics were detained for interrogations after having signed a petition with more than other 1.000 people asking for Peace in the South- East of the country, where there are ongoing violent clashes between the Turkish Army and the PKK.[65] The academics accused the government of breaching international law. An investigation started upon those academics under charges of “terrorism propaganda”, “incitement to hatred and enmity” and for “insulting the State” under Article No. 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code.{{cn}
Broadcasting[edit]
See also: Television in Turkey and Concentration of media ownership in Turkey
In television broadcasts, scenes displaying nudity, consumption of alcohol, smoking, drug usage and violence are commonly censored by blurring out respective areas.[144] TV channels also practice self-censorship of subtitles in order to avoid heavy fines from the Radio and Television Supreme Council (Radyo ve Televizyon Üst Kurulu,RTÜK). For example, CNBC-e channel usually translates the word “gay” as “marginal“.[145]
State agency RTÜK continues to impose a large number of closure orders on TV and radio stations on the grounds that they have made separatist broadcasts.[24]
- In 2000, television channels were instructed that they would be suspended for a day if they aired the music video for ‘Kuşu Kalkmaz’, a single from Sultana's debut album ‘Çerkez Kızı’.[146]
- In August 2001, RTÜK banned the BBC World Service and the Deutsche Welle on the grounds that their broadcasts "threatened national security."[24] A ban on broadcasting in Kurdish was lifted with certain qualifications in 2001 and 2002.[66]
- Early in 2007, the Turkish government banned a popular television series called Valley of the Wolves: Terror, citing the show's violent themes. The TV show inspired a Turkish-made movie by the same name, which included American actor Gary Busey. Busey played an American doctor who removed organs from Iraqi prisoners at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison and sold the harvested organs on the black market. The movie was pulled from theaters in the United States after the Anti-Defamation League complained to the Turkish ambassador to the U.S. about the movie's portrayal of Jews.[147]
- In 2013, a private television channel fined $30,000 for insulting religious values over an episode of "The Simpsons" in which God was shown taking orders from the devil.[148]
Print[edit]
- Özgür Gündem case (1993- 2016): Özgür Gündem is a pro-Kurdish and leftist media outlet based in Istanbul. From the beginning of the ‘90’s, the newspaper has been subject to raids and legal actions, with many journalists being arrested and even killed. The paper remained closed from 1994 to 2011 due to a court order. These facts were the bases for the Özgür Gündem v. Turkey case before the ECtHR.[75] On August 16, 2016, there was another raid by Turkish police inside the newspaper and a court ordered its interim closure for "continuously making propaganda for Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)" and "acting as if it is a publication of the armed terror organisation".[149] Twenty-four Gündem's journalists were arrested and kept in precautionary detention. Only considering July 2016, the Özgür Gündem's website was blocked twice, first on the 1st and then on the 26th.[150]
Censorship of works of art[edit]
- Michael Dickinson collage case (2006): In June 2006, police seized a collage by British artist Michael Dickinson — which showed the then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a dog being given a rosette by President Bush — and told him he would be prosecuted. Charles Thomson, leader of the Stuckism movement, of which Dickinson is a member, wrote to then UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair in protest. The Times commented: "The case could greatly embarrass Turkey and Britain, for it raises questions about Turkey’s human rights record as it seeks EU membership, with Tony Blair’s backing."[151] The prosecutor declined to present a case, until Dickinson then displayed another similar collage outside the court. He was then held for ten days[152] and told he would be prosecuted[153] for "insulting the Prime Minister's dignity".[154] In September 2008, he was acquitted, the judge ruling that "insulting elements" were "within the limits of criticism".[155] Dickinson said, "I am lucky to be acquitted. There are still artists in Turkey facing prosecution and being sentenced for their opinions."[155]
- Media Markt advertisement scandal in Eskişehir (2009): Eskişehir’s Turkish Union Association motivated suspension of an advertisement campaign by Media Markt that the group claimed “insult Turkishness” by depicting consumers with animal heads goose -a cow, a carp and a sheep, each chosen for its implication of foolishness- that purchased overpriced merchandise. In the advertisements they used sentences such as "Am I a sheep?" "Am I bird-brained?" (Common insults in Turkish).[156]
- On 2016, the director of the Dresdner Sinfoniker orchestra claimed Turkey's delegation to the European Union demanded the European Commission withdraw 200,000 euros in funding for a concert which will use the term “genocide” in texts sung and spoken during a planned show.[157]
- Zehra Doğan case: On March 6, 2017, Zehra Doğan was sentenced to 2 years and 9 months of detention for “separatist propaganda”, following a drawing of her shared on Twitter representing the Nusaybin curfew, in the South- East of Turkey.[158]
- Before the 2017 Turkish constitutional referendum which would authorise changes to the Turkish constitution to increase the power of the president, a Turkish court banned a pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) song which supported the "No" on the grounds that it contravened the constitution and fomented hatred.[159]
- In 2018, Turkey's top media watchdog, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), reviewed the English-language lyrics of pop songs, and issued fines after concluding that they were inappropriate. RTÜK issued a 17,065 Turkish Lira fine to the music channels NR1 and Dream TV due to the lyrics of ‘Wild Thoughts’ and the same amount of fine to Power TV due to the lyrics of ‘Sex, Love & Water’.[160]
Censorship of films, movies and theater plays[edit]
- The Sex and the City 2 film, was banned from Turkish cable television because authorities saw the representation of gay marriage as “twisted and immoral” and deemed dangerous to the Turkish family.[161][162]
- In 2011, established the platform Siyah Bant (Black Bar) to research and document cases of censorship in the arts in Turkey and to defend artistic freedom of expression.[163]
- In 2014, the film Yeryüzü Aşkın Yüzü Oluncaya Dek (Until the Face of the Earth Becomes a Face of Love) was removed from the programme of the International Antalya Film Festival by festival organisers after a warning that showing the film may commit the crime of insulting Turkey's President.[163]
- In 2015, the Istanbul film festival cancelled the screening of the film North (original title: Bakur) after the Turkish ministry of culture complained. The film showed a footage of a few members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.[164]
- In 2016, the Ankara International Film Festival, which did not require registration documents for films before 2015, requested this document from all the producers of films that passed the pre-screening to be added to the programme. Two directors who said that registration documents were being used as a form of censorship and, for this reason, they would not get them, had their films removed from the programme.[163]
- On April 2017, the futuristic satire short film called "The Last Schnitze" banned from the Istanbul Film Festival because the filmmakers refused to comply with the Turkish ministry.[165]
- In 2017, the Ankara Governor's Office banned the Germany's embassy LGBT Film Festival.[166]
- On 17 November 2017 - The governor's office of Ankara has banned all the public showing of all films, exhibitions and events related to LGBT, citing "public sensitivities."[167]
- In 2018, the Adana State Theater's play “India Bank,” which was on a tour in the province of Batman, was removed from the stage because of an intervention by Batman provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate officials. The theater play was removed from the stage after two of its scenes were deemed “obscene.”[168]
- In 2018, the Ankara Governor's Office has banned the LGBT-related film “Pride”, citing the ongoing state of emergency in the country as a reason for the ban. The office said such events can “incite hatred and enmity” among different factions of the society, from which “danger” can arise.[169]
Censorship of books[edit]
- In 1961, an issue of the Italian comic book Captain Miki banned, because "encouraged laziness and a ‘spirit of adventurousness' among Turkish people."[170]
- In the late 1960s or early 1970s, the Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' The Communist Manifesto, Lenin's State and Revolution and Stalin's The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) banned.[170]
- On July 1972, police raided 30 publishing houses in Istanbul and confiscated between 250,000–500,000 books and detained over 50 publishers, distributors and booksellers.[171]
- On January 1973, martial law prosecutor ordered 137 leftist publications to be burnt.[171]
- In 1973, 11 publishers were charged for publishing the novel The Grapes of Wrath, because they were "spreading propaganda unfavorable to the state."
- In 1987, the National Geographic Atlas of the World was banned.[170]
- In 1989, Turkey banned the import, sale and distribution of The Satanic Verses.[170]
- In 2004, the book The Eleven Thousand Rods was censored in Turkey and its publisher, was sentenced to a monetary fine of 684 Turkish Lira on the grounds of "obscenity" and "harming inner feelings of the people".[172]
- In 2007, The God Delusion had caused its publisher Erol Karaaslan to be investigated by an Istanbul prosecutor for "inciting religious hatred."[170]
- In 2008, Nedim Gursel, faced charges for "incitement to violence or hatred" after publishing his book Daughters of Allah, which supposedly insulted Islam.[111]
- In 2013, two verses of the poem "Table," which was written by the Turkish poet Edip Cansever, were omitted from high school books since they include the word "beer."[173]
- In 2013, Turkey lifted of decades-old bans on 453 books and 645 periodicals.[170]
- In 2013, Turkey censored John Steinbeck's classic, Of Mice and Men on grounds of "immorality."[148]
- In 2013, a teacher in Istanbul risked disciplinary sanctions for giving students homework from My Sweet Orange Tree.[148]
- On October 11, 2017, the Turkish Culture Minister said, in response to a parliamentary question, that almost 139,141 books have been collected from 1,142 libraries across Turkey since the July 2016 coup attempt over "Gülenist propaganda".[174]
Internet censorship[edit]
See also: Category:Internet censorship in Turkey, Internet regulation in Turkey, and 2017 block of Wikipedia in Turkey
Turkey's Internet censorship regime shifted from "moderate" to "severe" in late 2016 following a series of social media shutdowns, regional Internet blackouts and restrictions on VPN and Tor circumvention tools documented by independent digital rights watchdog Turkey Blocks.[175][176] Months earlier, human rights research group Freedom House had already downgraded its outlook of internet freedom in the country to "Not Free," noting in its report that the assessment was made before further restrictions following the abortive military coup in July.[177]
It has been suggested that this article be split into a new article titled Internet censorship in Turkey. (Discuss) (November 2017)
With regard to Internet censorship, in the 2017 Report on media freedom and freedom of expression in Turkey, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe found out:[51]
- the increase of blocking and filtering of web pages;
- an increased practice of resorting to bandwidth throttling during times of domestic crises, making certain social media and platforms inaccessible.;
- cases of full internet shutdowns;
- Increase of prosecutions and detentions for online activities causing a great chilling effect (a.k.a. self-censorship).
In earlier years, the Turkish government implemented legal and institutional reforms driven by the country's ambitions to become a European Union member state. At the same time Turkey demonstrated its high sensitivity to defamation and other "inappropriate" online content, resulting in the closure of a number of local and international Web sites. All Internet traffic passes through Turk Telecom’s infrastructure, allowing centralized control over online content and facilitating the implementation of shutdown decisions.[178][179]
In December 2010 the OpenNet Initiative, a non-partisan organization based in Canada and the United States that investigates, analyzes, and exposes Internet filtering and surveillance practices, classified Internet censorship in Turkey as selective (third lowest of four classifications) in the political, social, and Internet tools areas and found no evidence of censorship in the conflict/security area.[180] However, also in 2010, Reporters Without Borders added Turkey to its list of 16 countries "under surveillance" (the less serious of two Internet censorship lists that it maintains), saying:
The year 2010 was marked by the widely covered deblocking of the video-sharing website YouTube which, unfortunately, did not equate to a lifting of online censorship in Turkey. In a country where taboo topics abound, several thousand websites are still inaccessible and legal proceedings against online journalists persist.[181]
In July 2010 the Alternative Informatics Association organized one of the first and largest street protests against Internet censorship in Istanbul. A second protest took place in May 2011 with demonstrations in 30 cities in Turkey.[182]
In its Freedom on the Net 2016 report, Freedom House gave Turkey a "freedom on the net status" of "not free" saying that:[183]
- Mobile and internet connections were repeatedly suspended in Yuksekova, Cizre, Sur, Silopi, and other cities in the southeast of the country during raids by security agencies against militants ;Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube were temporarily blocked on numerous occasions—typically in the aftermath of terrorist attacks—until they restricted access to specific posts or accounts;
- Turkey accounted for almost 90 percent of all content that was locally restricted by Twitter in the second half of 2015. Turkey's regulator fined the company TRY 150,000 (US$51,000) for refusing to remove what it termed “terrorist propaganda” from the site ;
- Pro-government trolls have escalated their campaigns to harass opposition voices and organizations on social media through smear campaigns and fake accounts ;
- Journalists such as Hayri Tunç, Aytekin Gezici, and Bülent Keneş received lengthy prison sentences for “insulting” public officials or spreading “terrorism propaganda” ;
- A 14-day cyberattack brought almost 400,000 Turkish websites offline and temporarily suspended retail banking services in the country.
The Freedom on the Net 2015 report, tracked that over 60,000 websites remain blocked in Turkey, and that TIB blocked 22,645 websites without prior court order only in 2014. Twitter was blocked for two weeks and YouTube for two months in 2014.[2][184] On March 21, 2014, Twitter access for Turkish users was blocked for two weeks in the run-up to local elections to prevent a stream of leaked wiretapped recordings of senior officials that had appeared on the site, prompting Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to declare he would "root out" the network.[185]
In the 11th biannual transparency report published on September 19, 2017, Twitter said that Turkey was the first among countries where about 90 percent of removal requests came from.[186] Also, Turkey has submitted the highest volume of removal requests to Twitter on 2014,[187] 2015[188][189] and 2016.[188]
During the 2016–17 purges, the secure instant messaging app ByLock was accused by the Turkish government of being used primarily by members of the Gülen movement, which it classifies as a terrorist organization, during the failed coup. The government launched investigations of over 23,000 citizens for connections to Gülen, based solely on evidence that they had downloaded or used ByLock. Some of these investigations resulted in arrests and detainment. However, in December 2017, the government announced that it would investigate 11,480 phone numbers had been falsely accused of ties to ByLock and Gülen, after finding that the accusations were induced by unrelated apps embedding a web beacon pointing to the ByLock website from within. An arrest warrant was also issued against the developer of one of these apps.[190][191]
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