P24 Platform for Independent Journalism

Articles by P24 Platform for Independent Journalism

Turkey: Where do the presidential candidates stand on free expression?

Ahead of the elections, Expression Interrupted analyses the approaches to media regulation and free speech of the two leading candidates: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

Gezi trial: Osman Kavala handed life in prison, seven co-defendants get 18 years each

“The judicial process has become deformed under political influence and turned into an act of deprivation of liberty by abuse of power” – Osman Kavala

After photojournalist Bülent Kılıç was detained during the Pride Parade, his colleagues gathered to protest police violence with banners that said "free press, free country", outside the Istanbul Governor's Office, Turkey, 29 June 2021, Onur Dogman/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

New Turkey report: May and June saw increased police violence against reporters and 109 journalists stand trial

Expression Interrupted’s report shows that freedom of expression and the media continues to deteriorate in Turkey, despite an ongoing decline in the number of journalists in prison and government “reforms”.

Demonstrators hold posters of jailed journalists while calling for their release, in front of a courthouse in Istanbul, Turkey, 9 September 2020, OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images

New report on Turkey: 213 journalists stood trial in first four months of 2021; at least 68 were in prison

Expression Interrupted, a project undertaken by the P24 Platform for Independent Journalism, has published the first of its regular ‘Freedom of Expression and the Press Agenda’ reports.

Turkish journalist and writer Ahmet Altan (C), with his children Kerem (L) and Senem (R), poses for AFP at his home minutes after he arrived following his release from jail, in Istanbul, Turkey, 14 April 2021, BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey: Writer Ahmet Altan released after Supreme Court overturns his conviction

Altan and his co-defendant Nazlı Ilıcak, whose conviction was also overturned, were sentenced in November 2019 to 10 years and 6 months and 8 years and 9 months in prison respectively, on the charge of “aiding a terrorist organization”.

Ahmet Altan's portrait on the cover of his book "I will never see the world again", 13 February 2019, InTo MüBu/Flickr, Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)

ECtHR: Ahmet Altan’s detention violated his right to liberty, freedom of expression

Noting that there was no indication that Altan’s actions had been part of a deliberate plan to overthrow the government, the ECtHR ruled that Altan has been unlawfully detained and accused without reasonable suspicion of involvement in an illegal organisation and the 2016 attempted coup.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during a publicity meeting for the Human Rights Action Plan at Bestepe National Congress and Culture Center, Ankara, Turkey, 2 March 2021, Dogukan Keskinkilic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

“Makeup on a bedridden patient”: Rights experts assess Turkey’s new Human Rights Action Plan

“The lack of a clear implementation schedule, the exclusion of NGOs in the mechanism for protection of human rights and failure to word the measures to be taken in concrete language raise doubts about the implementation of the plan”.

Turkey: Can Dündar sentenced to 27 years and 6 months in prison because of his journalism

The former editor-in-chief of “Cumhuriyet” daily was on trial over the newspaper’s 2015 coverage of allegations that Turkey sent weapons to insurgents in Syria on trucks operated by the National Intelligence Agency.