Turkey has been receiving much attention after closing more than 130 media outlets back in July of 2016. According to Reuters, “A state of emergency was declared following a failed military coup, stirring concern among Western allies and rights groups about deteriorating press freedoms.”
Now members of newspapers like pro-Kurdish ‘Ozgur Gundem’ and the ‘Zaman’ newspaper, are awaiting long term or life sentencing for having relations with terrorist organizations and posing threat to national unity. Reuters also states that “In the indictment...life imprisonment and jail sentences of up to 17-1/2 years were sought for the nine suspects recently arrested".
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indicated that Fethullah Gulen who works for the Zaman newspaper, is suspected to be one of the organizers of the coup against the government. Since his arrest, the government has taken over the Zaman newspaper which is now strongly pro- Erdogan.
NPR confirms that One of Turkey's oldest and most-respected newspapers, the ‘Cumhuriyet’ have also been targeted by prosecutors. “In May, the paper's former editor-in-chief was sentenced to five years in jail for espionage after he published evidence of Turkish intelligence trucks delivering weapons into Syria.”
Prize winning novelist Asli Erdogan who is reportedly not related to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was one of the many accused of spreading propaganda of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), as reported in Reuters.
The Guardian also mentions, “The Turkish government has used a state of emergency law to order the closure of at least 131 newspapers, television and radio stations, publishers and news agencies.
The BBC reports “Three news agencies, 16 TV channels, 23 radio stations, 45 papers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers will be shut”. With down of these media outlets and multiple arrest made, Turkey has now reclaimed its place as the world’s leading jailer of journalists.