The Mezopotamya Female Journalists Association (MKG) has announced in a monthly report that a total of 22 women journalists were involved in trial proceedings in June over their professional activities, the Mezopotamya news agency (MA) reported on Thursday.
The journalists were facing charges as part of 17 separate trials, the report said.
Seven of the journalists were in prison as of June 1, and one journalist was sentenced to more than six years in prison during the month.
“In June, there was physical violence of notable proportions against women journalists,” the report said. “In addition to the general problems related to press freedom, female journalists are faced with more pressure and discrimination on account of their gender.”
The report cited examples such as a strip-search of MA reporter Esra Solin Dal, who is incarcerated in İstanbul.
Although Dal has filed criminal complaints, the authorities declined to investigate in what the report described as another example of the impunity afforded public officials accused of misconduct when it comes to women journalists.
Rights groups routinely accuse Turkey of undermining media freedom by arresting journalists and shutting down critical media outlets, especially since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan survived a failed coup in July 2016.
The country was described as a global leader in terms of legal harassment of women journalists in a report by the Coalition for Women in Journalism (CFWIJ) last year.
Turkey is ranked 165th in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2023 World Press Freedom Index, among 180 countries, not far from North Korea, which occupies the bottom of the list.
