Turkey: Journalists face jail sentence as democracy collapses
Journalists covering the recent Turkish protests are facing a minimum three-year jail sentence in the latest demonstration of collapsing democratic structures in Turkey.
Reported by Middle East Eye on April 9th, seven journalists arrested whilst covering the protests are being charged with violating a law prohibiting participation in unsanctioned protests.
Thousands of Turkish people took to the streets to protest the recent jailing of the Mayor of Istanbul and primary political opposition figure, Ekrem Imamoglu, despite the government banning public protest amid fears of civic unrest.
Imamoglu was last month confirmed as the People’s Republican Party (CHP) as their candidate for the next presidential election with many public opinion polls placing the Istanbul Mayor ahead of Erdogan, putting the possibility of ending Erdogan’s 23-year rule on the table.
In response, Erdogan has accused the CHP of trying to overthrow his government through non-democratic means and arrested Imamoglu for “establishing and managing a criminal organization, taking bribes, extortion, unlawfully recording personal data and rigging a tender,” as well as accusations of aiding the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – a registered terrorist organisation.
Since his arrest, according to Reuters, over 2,000 people had been detained and around 300 are jailed pending trial in the latest crackdown on political dissent. The arrest of an AFP journalist also proved that those working for international media outlets had no extra protection.
Yasin Akgul, a journalist for AFP, told the BBC the Turkish government was sending a message to all journalists: “Don’t shoot, don’t speak, don’t film”. Akgul believes the journalists arrested were hand-picked, removing seasoned journalists and photojournalists from the frontlines of the protests.
“Neither journalism nor participating in meetings and demonstrations as a constitutional right is a crime,” wrote the Turkish Journalist Syndicate.
Turkey has regularly been cited as the world’s worst jailer of journalists by media freedom organisations, particularly since the 2016 coup attempt and despite Turkey’s repeated foreign policy attempts to integrate into the west, and particularly Europe.
But since the coming to power of President Erdogan, the country has seen a gradual, and yet incredibly damaging, process of democratic decimation.
When Erdogan came to power in 2003, he was widely considered a moderate reformer, pursuing democratic reforms, pushing for EU accession talks, and lifting restrictions on religious expression.
Yet over time Erdogan neutered the secular military and judiciary, marginalizing historically powerful institutions and becoming more overtly intolerant of political rivals.
The 2016 coup attempt was a critical turning point for Erdogan who purged the civil service, shut down media outlets en masse, imposed as state of emergency and arrested thousands of citizens on vague terrorism charges.
His presidential consolidation over the levers of power have placed Erdogan on the fringes of Europe and this latest crackdown proves the deteriorating nature of Turkish democratic politics.
Whilst Erdogan argues the protests for Imamoglu will wane, so far they haven’t.
Middle East Eye, Maghrebi, BBC
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