Turkish lawyers under siege

The Detained Lawyers Initiative, a civilian group that defends lawyers in Turkish prisons, has released a new report showing that the Turkish judiciary has tried more than 1,600 lawyers and that the country’s security authorities have arrested 615 others on charges of terrorism.

The report, which monitored Turkish authorities’ security campaigns against lawyers, revealed that 474 lawyers were sentenced to long prison terms under the pretext of belonging to a terrorist group or spreading propaganda.

Turkish police raided the homes of four local YouTubers in the southern city of Antalya. They air street interviews on Turkey's economic difficulties and unemployment and cover the harassment charges against a high-profile member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The International Press Institute described the move as a new crackdown on media freedoms in Turkey, citing the cases brought against journalists over the 72 hours since Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day.

With Turkey’s traditional media outlets increasingly owned by pro-government groups and critical journalists dismissed from their posts, Turks have turned to journalists’ YouTube channels and other social media accounts as well as the small pool of independent media outlets for information.

Freedom House said that hundreds of websites were blocked between June 2020 and June 2021, including the news outlet Tele1's YouTube account, which was suspended repeatedly without explanation. Along with increasingly frequent legal measures targeting years-old posts, journalists face increasing physical attacks as a result of their online activity.

In March 2021, a far-right mob assaulted online journalist Levent Gultekin, breaking his fingers following his comments about the founder of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party.

Turkey scored 34 out of 100 in the “Freedom on the Net 2021” report by Freedom House, a decline from its scores of 35 in 2020 and 37 in 2019.