The Dicle Firat Journalists Association (DFG) has released a report detailing the crackdown on journalists in Turkey in January 2025.
January marks a new escalation of repression against journalists in Turkey, with 42 new investigations opened against journalists within just one month, while investigations against 74 journalists were opened within the whole year of 2024. Furthermore, 102 journalists were tried in 43 cases in January and, as a result, 12 journalists were given sentence of a total of 31 years and two months.
One of these journalists was former Jin News News Director Sofya Alağaş, the co-mayor of the Siirt (Sêrt) Municipality was sentenced to six years and three months in prison on charges of “terrorist organisation membership” for the lawsuits filed against her while she was a journalist.
Investigations into social media posts about the murdered journalists Nazim Daştan and Cîhan Bîlgîn, who were killed in a Turkish drone strike near Kobani (Kobanê) in northern Syria on 19 December, have turned into court cases against journalists Seyhan Avşar, Ahmet Doğan Akın and Candan Yıldız.
Besides the investigations and arrests of journalists, many news agencies’ social media accounts were blocked, among them the X account of Mezopotamya Ajansi, which has 264k followers, Jin News with 168k followers and the newspaper Yeni Yaşam with 125k followers. The Instagram accounts of Jin News and Yeni Yaşam were closed down as well.
Another dimension of the crackdown on journalists has been censorship. The government, which withdrew its Espionage Law following public outcry, introduced a new censorship law to parliament on 10 January, coinciding with Working Journalists’ Day. The proposed Cyber Security Law, submitted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) MPs Atay Uslu and Ali Özkaya along with 133 other lawmakers, was also backed by the opposition Good Party (İYİ Parti). The bill proposes prison sentences ranging from two to five years for reporting on ‘data leaks’ and has already been passed by the National Defence Commission. Legal experts have warned that, if enacted in its current form, the law would pose a serious threat to democratic society and fundamental human rights.
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