Istanbul (Reuters) – Free speech advocates expressed their concerns on Thursday over a widening state crackdown on press freedom and free speech in Turkey after the arrests of two high-profile journalists over allegedly “spreading false information”.
Tolga Sardan and Dincer Gokce were separately detained and charged on Wednesday under the so-called “disinformation law” that was adopted last year, under which journalists and social media users face up to three years in prison if convicted.
A court jailed Sardan, 55, after the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into his reporting on the judicial system and the MIT (National Intelligence Agency), according to the news portal T24 where he works.
Gokce, a reporter at opposition channel Halk TV, was released under judicial control measures.
The disinformation law partly targets those who spread false information online about Turkey’s security to “create fear and disturb public order”, which Ankara says is needed to protect the public.
Free speech advocats and opposition politicians say it censors dissent and a free press.
“We are journalists. We do journalism. That’s all,” Sardan told reporters on Wednesday before being sent to the Sincan prison in Ankara.
The government’s Center for Combating Disinformation, run by presidency’s Directorate of Communications, said Sardan’s article contains disinformation and is based on an nonexistant MIT report.
Turkey’s main opposition party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said on social media platform X that Sardan’s detention was “shameful”.
Media Chill
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) representative Erol Onderoglu told Reuters that jailing Sardan sends a message to all journalists in Turkey not to report on public authorities.
More than 20 journalists, mostly local reporters, are being targeted by the “spreading false information” article added to the Turkish penal code last year, Onderoglu said.
RSF ranked Turkey 165th out of 180 countries in its 2023 World Press Freedom Index.
On Thursday, journalist associations demonstrated in Ankara to protest Sardan’s detention and demanded his release.
“The press is being tried to be silenced with censorship practices… (W)e will continue to speak out against corruption despite pressures and threats,” said a joint statement by eight journalism associations.
Sinan Aygul, a reporter in the eastern province of Bitlis, was the first journalist to be detained under the disinformation law, last December, after he had written on Twitter about the alleged sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl.
Ozgur Ogret, Turkey representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the disinformation law is “an alternative method for authorities to repress journalism when the usual methods by using the anti-terrorism law is not applicable”.
