Turkey

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has today warmly welcomed the release of Turkish journalists, Füsun Erdoğan, Bayram Namaz and Arif Çelebi, who had been behind bars for almost eight years since September 2006. ‘‘We welcome the fantastic news that Füsun Erdoğan, Bayram Namaz and Arif Çelebi, have finally been released and can now return to their families, loved ones and...

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has welcomed the release of eight journalists in Turkey, but has called on the country’s government to immediately lift the latest social media ban on Youtube. According to media reports, eight Kurdish journalists, arrested in the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) press case on December 20, 2011, were released from prison in the early hours of...

Municipal and regional elections regarded as a key test for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government will be held on March 30 after weeks of campaign tension that has not spared Turkey’s journalists. Embroiled in political and financial scandals and waging an information war with the influential followers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, the government has stepped up pressure on...

Press freedom organisations have condemned Turkey’s blocking of Twitter, which began at around midnight Thursay night, just nine days ahead of regional elections and after several weeks in which Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s standing has been damaged by the leaking of a series of embarrassing audio recordings online. The alleged recordings of Erdogan’s conversations, many of which...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan has threatened to close down Twitter. The threats come only days after he vowed to shut down Facebook and YouTube in Turkey. "We call on Prime Minister ErdoÄŸan to stop his vitriol against social media in the country and focus on ensuring that all information platforms are free to function freely in advance of local elections," Committee to Protect...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has welcomed the release this week of five Turkish journalists who were imprisoned after being sentenced to jail in connection with the controversial Ergenekon case. Three of the journalists-- Yalçın Küçük, Deniz Yıldırım, and Merdan YanardaÄŸ--were convicted because of their work, according to CPJ research. In the cases of Tuncay Özkan and Hikmet ÇiÃ...

The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan's threats to shut down YouTube and Facebook in order to, in the premier's words, prevent the negative impact of the Internet on society. "We call on the government of Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan to stop censoring or threatening to censor the media in an attempt to control the free flow of information," CPJ...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Rayyip Erdogan’s declarations on March 7, during which he announced new Internet restrictions would be discussed, have been criticised by Reporters Without Borders. According to these new restrictions, local Facebook and Youtube pages could be completely shut down. “We are extemely worried by the fact that Erdogan would even consider such radical actions. The...

The Turkish government has been interfering in a series of prosecutions in 2009 against Dogan Holding, a conglomerate that owns many leading news media. Telephone recordings leaked on March 3 show that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then justice minister Sadullah Ergin intervened directly in these proceedings, which resulted in Dogan being ordered to pay an astronomical fine of more than...

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkish President Abdullah Gül to veto the Internet bill passed Wednesday by the Turkish Parliament. The bill would grant the Turkish government unprecedented control over the Internet by allowing Web pages to be blocked without a court order, requiring mandatory data retention by Internet Service Providers, and authorizing the government to seize...