Turkey’s Disinformation Law Will Strike Further Blow to Media Freedom

The disinformation bill consists of an ambitious 40 clauses that cover a variety of topics, from internet regulations to press law. Primarily it introduces new restrictions targeting the free circulation of information. 

In short, it's an attempt to silence any voice that does not resonate with the press releases of the presidential palace. 

Building on previous internet regulations, which had introduced content removal orders in 2020, the new bill introduces prison sentences of up to three years, with a possibility of increasing sentences by 50 per cent, for any journalists and individual internet users that publish anonymously or share content relying on anonymous sources that are refuted by the government. 

A law that's been long in the making Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan observes the agreement exchange ceremony between Serbia and Turkey in Belgrade, Serbia, 07 October 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

Looking at how this law came into being, it goes back a long time. The governing alliance in Turkey has long claimed that the true version of things happening in the country and the world was only published by the pro-government media; the implication was that the critical, independent media were publishing false information. 

Over the years, whenever scandalous statements or incidents took place, the first impulse was to issue a media blackout order. But these were largely disregarded by online platforms, including social media, which resulted in the circulation of the news, however, distorted it may be. 

In 2020, in the early days of the Covid-19 lockdown, as part of the economic relief package, the government aimed to pass a law that would tighten control over what was published on social...