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Friday, March 29, 2024

More than 120 journalists still jailed in Turkey -International Press Institute

World – More than 120 journalists are still being held in Turkey’s jails, a global record, and the situation of the media in the country has not improved since the lifting of a two-year state of emergency last year, a global press watchdog said on Tuesday.

Turkey declared a state of emergency soon after a failed coup in 2016. It sacked or suspended 150,000 judges, academics, military officers, civil servants and others during the two years it was in force on suspicion of backing a U.S.-based cleric blamed by Ankara for the coup. More than 77,000 people were jailed pending trial.

Hundreds of journalists have faced prosecution since the coup, mainly on terrorism-related charges, the International Press Institute (IPI) said in a new report, adding the number of journalists still in jail had fallen from a high of over 160.

“Behind those figures lies a story of egregious violations of fundamental rights, with dozens of journalists held on the most serious terrorism-related charges for months, sometimes years, pending trial, in many cases without an official indictment,” it said.

Journalists were jailed “as a consequence of an extended, politically motivated crackdown against the media”, the report said, adding that Turkey has been the world’s “undisputed leading jailor of journalists” for almost a decade.

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