Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS) report: 47 journalists in prison on World Press Freedom Day

Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS) published a report on the situation in Turkey on 3rd May, World Press Freedom Day. "Pressures, arrests, censorship and attacks... On 3 May World Press Freedom Day, journalists in Turkey are not free," the report said.

According to the data in the 2022-2023 Press Freedom Report, which was prepared to identify interventions against press freedom and to reveal the situation in the economic and social rights of journalists, at least:

• 96 journalists were physically attacked.
• 43 journalists were verbally threatened.
• 32 journalists were arrested.
• As of 3 May 2023, 47 journalists are in prison for their journalistic activities.
• 80 percent of imprisoned journalists are accused of 'membership of an armed organisation'.
• 11 journalists were released from prison.
• 97 journalists were detained. Journalists were detained for a total of 1087 hours.
• 33 journalists gave statements due to investigations against them.
• 263 journalists were put on trial in 125 criminal proceedings last year. 35 trials were finalised. 90 trials are ongoing. 55 years, 1 month and 21 days of imprisonment were sentenced.
• 63 journalists were acquitted.
• A judicial fine of 19 thousand TL was imposed.
• 7 of 14 compensation cases against journalists resulted in judgements. A total of 120 thousand TL compensation was awarded.
• Access to 4,148 news articles and 46 news websites was banned.
• It was decided to remove all or part of 682 news items from the content.
• 9 news items were blocked from search engines on the grounds of the right to be forgotten.
•  RTÜK imposed 58 administrative fines on television channels. A total of 13.703.913,913,56 TL administrative fine was imposed. 33 broadcasting suspensions were imposed.
• With its decision dated 22 August 2022, BİK completely cancelled the advertisements and advertisements it had not given to Evrensel newspaper since 2019.

6 FEBRUARY EARTHQUAKES AND JOURNALISTS

The TGS Report also includes the consequences of the two major earthquakes that occurred on 6 February 2023 for journalists. According to this;

• 26 journalists and press workers lost their lives.
• 2 journalists were arrested on charges of "publicly disseminating misleading information".
• 6 journalists were detained.
• 4 journalists were called to testify.
• 18 journalists were subjected to physical attacks including lynching attempts.
• 21 journalists were prevented from reporting by threats.
• 3 journalists were dismissed or forced to resign.
• RTÜK imposed a total of 4.324.251 TL administrative fine and five broadcast suspension decisions due to earthquake-related broadcasts.
• During the search and rescue operations, social media was subjected to band throttling.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SITUATION OF JOURNALISTS

In the report, the picture in terms of economic and social rights is as follows;

• The number of registered employees in enterprises engaged in journalism activities increased to 27,241. The ratio of journalists to the total number of registered employees in the sector was 27.4%.
• While the official general unemployment rate was 10.4% and the unemployment rate among graduates of colleges and faculties was 11.3% in 2022, the unemployment rate among journalism graduates was 15.7%.
• In 2022, journalism graduates (15.7%) had the third highest unemployment rate after social services (22.4%) and arts (16.2%) graduates.
• TGS dissipates the pessimism caused by unemployment and precarious employment with its successful organising campaigns.
• TGS is authorised in 15 different enterprises. If collective labour agreements are signed in four more enterprises where negotiations are in various stages, this number will increase to 19. 8 of these companies are international, 7 are national and 4 are local.
• The anti-union attitude and persistence of the bosses is also seen in this period. The TGS's authorisation lawsuits against Hürriyet newspaper and Halk TV continue at various stages.
• Despite the bosses' objections to authorisation, protracted authorisation lawsuits and threats of dismissal during this process, TGS managed to increase its membership to 1671 according to January 2023 data. (EVRENSEL DAILY)