Turkey censored 2,950 online news articles in 2018 according to the “BİA Media Monitoring Report 2018,” released by the Bianet news website on Tuesday.
Turkish authorities also blocked 77 tweets, 22 Facebook posts, five Facebook videos and 10 websites, issued three broadcast bans and censored eight newspapers, two TV stations, two personal letters, one news report, one TV series and one interview.
Wikipedia, the world’s most popular Internet encyclopedia, which was blocked in 2017, remained so throughout 2018.
The report also presented an overview of the current status of the media in Turkey, which ranked 157th out of 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.
According to the report 2017 passed with unquestionable administrative and penal applications of censorship because of statutory decrees and a state of emergency declared after a coup attempt on July 15, 2016. In 2017 six temporary broadcast bans were issued, three incidents of accreditation discrimination occurred, 47 passports and one press card were canceled and three media organizations were shut down under statutory decrees. Ten websites, six newspapers, 97 online articles, eight books, six magazines, three tweets and eight comic strips were censored. Nine miscellaneous cases of censorship have also taken place.
“In 2016, 778 press cards were canceled, 54 journalists’ assets were confiscated, 29 broadcast bans, including temporary bans, were issued. 179 media and broadcast companies were shut down upon statutory decrees, passports of 46 journalists were canceled, three incidents of accreditation discrimination happened. 300 Twitter accounts, 33 Youtube links, 79 Instagram links, 323 news articles, 76 websites were censored,” the report read.
From 2014 to 2018, 45 broadcast bans were issued in order to prevent major topics concerning the country to be addressed. (turkishminute.com, bianet.org)
