Media freedom in Turkey

In the aftermath of the failed coup, the government closed down ​179 media outlets​ – including 53 newspapers, 37 radio stations, 34 TV channels, ​29 publishing houses​9, 20 magazines, and six news agencies – with accused links to the Gulen movement, Kurdish opposition, or Leftists groups. Consequently, a total of ​2,308 media workers​ and journalists have lost their jobs. The government canceled hundreds of press accreditations and revoked the passports of an unknown number of journalists and their family members to ban them from traveling abroad. In addition, the government imprisoned a record-breaking number of journalists in the wake of the coup attempt – with that, Turkey became the world’s largest prison for journalists.

The Platform for Independent Journalism (P24) reported that at least 126 journalists and media workers were in prison in Turkey as of October 2019, and it was ​155​ in March. – among them, many were put in long solitary confinement. The absence of freedom of expression is not only a recurring problem for journalists but for citizens as well. In 2018, the Ministry of Interior reported that more than 7,000 individuals were detained for their social media posts after investigating 631,233 digital materials.​ In relation to the censorship and content restrictions in the country, Wikipedia has been blocked in Turkey since April of 2017.

Currently, out of the 180 countries, Turkey ranks 154th on the ​Press Freedom Index​ of Reporters Without Borders and are
listed among ‘not free’ countries by the ​Freedom House.

The updated list of 141 jailed journalists prepared by ​the @jailedjournos​ platform and translated by Advocates of Silenced Turkey as of January 2021 is below.