‘Freedom of expression is at risk in Turkey’

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Co-financed by the European Union (EU), the Center for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) has shared the findings of its Media Pluralism Monitor 2021 (MPM2021), which is a scientific and holistic effort to document the health of media ecosystems, detailing threats to media pluralism and freedom in EU member states and some candidate countries.

Covering the year of 2020, the MPM2021's country report on Turkey has shown that freedom of press is at risk in the country.

The overall study is carried out in four major areas, namely fundamental protection, market plurality, political independence and social inclusiveness and the assessed risk scores are grouped as low (0-33 percent), medium (34-66 percent) and high (67-100 percent).

The study comprises the EU states as well as candidate countries, Albania, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey.

General findings

Sharing some selected findings with the public within this context, the Center for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) has raised concerns that "fundamental protection shows a deteriorating situation" when it is compared to the previous report, the MPM2020.

"This negative shift can be explained by the emergence of measures adopted by some governments following the COVID-19 pandemic," the Center has noted, underlining that "the pandemic also impacted the safety of journalists, affecting their working conditions."

"Several countries reported increases in physical attacks against journalists as well as online threats and harassment. The indicator Journalistic profession, standards and protection shows an overall increase in risk of seven percentage points," the Center has stressed.

Underlining that "political Independence area is at high risk in 7 countries," the report has commented, "The majority of countries (25 countries) scored high risk as they lack transparency concerning beneficiaries and expenditure, a signal of increasing political capture."

Turkey country report

For its report on Turkey, the CMPF partnered with Yasemin İnceoğlu, an academic of Communication Sciences, Ceren Sözeri from Galatasaray University and Tirşe Erbaysal Filibeli from Bahçeşehir University. The academics conducted the data collection, scored and commented on the variables in the questionnaire and interviewed the experts.

In all four major areas, Turkey's scores have been evaluated as high risk:

• Fundamental Protection (82 percent - high risk)
• Market Plurality (76 percent - high risk)
• Political Independence (88 percent - high risk)
• Social Inclusiveness (87 percent - high risk)

"The indicator on Protection of freedom of expression scores a high risk (95 percent)," the report has commented, briefly adding the following:

"The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that 37 journalists were imprisoned in 2020. The country is still one of the world's worst jailers after China.

"In the 2020 Reporters without Borders' (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, Turkey ranked 154th out of 180 countries.

"The journalists, mostly local ones, were arrested due to covering the COVID-19 pandemic on the grounds of 'spreading panic and fear' under Article 213 of the Penal Code and of not waiting for official information.

"At least 44 journalists are in jail as of World Press Freedom Day (May 3) 2021. In 2020, at least 18 journalists were physically attacked.

Unemployment

"There are 70 communication faculty and more than 14 thousand quotas in Turkey. Only five percent of the students graduating from communication faculties every year can find a job in the media sector.

"According to the Association of Advertising Agencies, the total advertising revenues have regularly been decreasing for several years due to the economic crisis and the digital shift. In the first half of 2020, television advertising revenues increased only by 5 percent, newspaper revenues decreased by 37.3 percent, radio revenues decreased by 17.1 percent.

Media ownership

"Media ownership is not transparent, and there is no media cross-ownership regulation in Turkey. Due to the problems of media concentration, it is hard to hear different voices in the current media environment.

"The mainstream media outlets are mostly under control of the ruling party AKP. The top 40 media outlets are owned by business people, but conglomerates such as Doğuş, Demirören, Albayrak, Ciner, Kalyon, İhlas Group operate in different sectors such as construction, energy, mining, tourism, telecommunications. So, media consolidation causes a conflict of interest and harms the freedom of news media outlets.

"According to the RSF's Media Ownership Monitor Turkey Report in 2019, 9 out of the 10 most-watched TV channels and 9 out of 10 most-read dailies are affiliated with the government

Access to media for women

"The indicator on Access to media for women scores a high risk (97 percent). PSM does not have a comprehensive gender equality policy and there is not a single woman on the board of directors.

"Female experts are not invited to comment on informative and political programmes and articles to the same extent as males. Female experts are rarely invited to comment on informative and political programmes and articles." (NÇ/HA/SD)