Turkey silencing independent media: Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Dec. 15 accused Turkey of "silencing" independent media after the failed July 15 coup attempt.

In a report, the U.S.-based rights watchdog said Turkey's assault on critical journalism began several years ago and had steadily sharpened since 2014, accelerating further since the attempted takeover.

HRW said journalists it spoke to described "the stifling atmosphere in which they work and about the rapidly shrinking space for reporting on issues the government does not want covered." 
 
Since mid-July, 140 media outlets and 29 publishing houses had been shut down under regulations imposed under a state of emergency, leaving over 2,500 journalists and media workers unemployed, HRW said.     

The state of emergency was extended to another three months in October.     

Just one of the emergency decrees involved the closure of 131 media outlets over alleged links to U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who Ankara has accused of masterminding the coup attempt.     

HRW said operations did not only affect those with alleged links to the coup-plotters, but also pro-Kurdish media and independent voices critical of the government.

Some 14 such media outlets have been shut down "effectively wiping out all media with a following among the Kurdish minority in Turkey," the report said.     

Accusing the government of using the criminal justice system as a tool against the media, HRW gave the example of the October arrests of 12 senior staff of the opposition daily Cumhuriyet, including its editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu. They are being accused of committing crimes on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Gülen movement.

Last year, the former...