Censorship in Turkey

Turkey's High Council on Radio and Television took away the rights to broadcast of 17 media agencies in the country at the end of the week, mediapool announced.

A Turkish court sentenced Wall Street Journal reporter Ayla Albayrak to two years and one month in prison Tuesday, declaring her guilty of engaging in terrorist propaganda in support of a banned Kurdish separatist organization through one of her Journal articles.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that a country's intelligence agency must be under the head of state, as he commented on the changes made in the functioning of the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) with the recent state of emergency decree.

Turkey’s intelligence service will report to the president from Friday, the Official Gazette said.

Dating shows will not be aired on Turkish TVs this season, an official from the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) was quoted as saying on Aug. 21 at a forum in the northwestern province of Kocaeli.

Former President Abdullah Gül recently said that journalists who are being tried should not be imprisoned. He said this in response to a question about the case against daily Cumhuriyet journalists, which was seen last week and which has attracted international attention and condemnation. 

Whoever is giving information to President Tayyip Erdoğan about the Turkish journalists in prison, they are not doing any good neither to him nor the country.

Journalist Ahmet Şık slammed measures taken in the wake of the last year's failed coup attempt in his first testimony in the case of daily Cumhuriyet journalists and executives on July 26 in which they are being indicted on terror charges.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said there is no press freedom in Turkey, referring to the ongoing cases against 17 journalists and executives of the daily Cumhuriyet. 

The start of the trial against journalists and board members of the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet highlights the urgent need to protect journalism and improve media freedom in Turkey, Harlem Désir, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media stated.