Recently, the legal regulations and the established institutional structures in Turkey are used to abolish fundamental rights instead of protecting and improving these ights. In this context, legal texts such as the Turkish Penal Code, the Anti-Terror Law and the Censorship Law, as well as institutions such as the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK), and the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TİB) have become the main obstacles to the freedom of the press. In addition, they are used as a means of combating independent media.
Government officials and public institutions consider journalism that does not support the government as a crime. The government does not give opposition journalism the right to life in order to take away the public’s right to get informed and manipulate the society as it wishes. The media, which is the most important institution of contemporary democracy and the source of the nation’s right to receive information, is being silenced currently.
While Turkey is going to the upcoming general elections , independent media are prevented from doing their job . Thus, it is attempted to create an inflated media with the news imposed by the current power. Since the government knows that one of the biggest obstacles in front of winning the general election is the media, it passed the Censorship LAW in order to silence the media and the opposition voices. In addition, the government is subjecting the media and dissidents to unlawful investigations in a way that terrorizes the law. According to the latest data from the Journalists’ Union of Turkey, 44 journalists and members of the press are currently in prison. Most recently, 9 press members from JINNEWS and Mesopotamia Agency have been added to this number.
Censorship Law No. 7418 was noted by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe as being unclear in content and infringing on the freedom of the press and expression. With the 29th article of the Censorship Law No. 7418, the crime of “Disseminating Misleading Information Publicly” was added to the Turkish Penal Code with article 217/A. With this regulation whose content was ambiguous and open to different interpretations according to the conjuncture of the period, all segments of society, especially journalists have been put under the threat of imprisonment from one to three years for what they wrote and drew.
Thanks to the Center for Combating Disinformation, which the government implemented with the Censorship Law, it is aimed to prevent the publication of a single dissenting voice and news in written, visual and social media. Thus, a system that aims to create regime media after the regime judgment has been created. As a result, democracy in Turkey, where fundamental rights are restricted more and more every day, is approaching to the point of extinction.
