RTÜK to monitor street interviews; Meta: "We had already removed content related to catalogue crimes;" lawsuit filed against journalist Barış Pehlivan; Court rejects RTÜK's appeal in Açık Radyo case

RTÜK to monitor street interviews

Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) President Ebubekir Şahin, claiming that street interviews "manipulate public opinion," "lead to disinformation" and "incite masses to sociological conflicts," said, "Such broadcasting activities and posts, especially on new media platforms, are under the follow-up of RTÜK."

On August 8, Şahin posted on his X account, stating that RTÜK has carried out and continues to carry out "necessary work within the scope of visual broadcasting principles" regarding such broadcasting activities.

Court rejects RTÜK's appeal in Açık Radyo case

An administrative appeal court has rejected the Radio and Television Supreme Council's (RTÜK) objection against the "stay of execution" decision in the lawsuit filed against Açık Radyo's broadcast suspension and fine penalties.

In its August 1 ruling, the Ankara Regional 10th Administrative Court stated that the "stay of execution" ordered by the Ankara 21st Administrative Court against a RTÜK decision to fine Açık Radyo and suspend its broadcasting was "not contrary to the law."

In its decision on 22 May 2024, RTÜK issued an administrative fine to Açık Radyo, as well as the suspension of the broadcast of the Açık Gazete program for five days, from 10 June through 14 June 2024 after a guest spoke of "Armenian genocide." In a subsequent decision on 3 July 2024, RTÜK stated that while Açık Radyo had received the notice for broadcast suspension on 31 May 2024, it had continued its broadcasts and thereby violated article 32 of the Law 6112 and revoked Açık Radyo’s broadcast license for not abiding by the broadcast suspension penalty. Following an appeal by Açık Radyo against the original decision to fine Açık Radyo and suspend its broadcast, the Ankara 21st Administrative Court issued a stay of execution.

Meta: "We had already removed content related to catalogue crimes"

Meta, the parent company of Instagram, which was blocked by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) in Turkey on August 2, published its Transparency Report on July 31, 48 hours before it was blocked by the BTK, and shared the number of contents it removed in the first half of 2024 as part of access blocking orders issued by Turkey's judicial and administrative authorities.

Accordingly, Meta stated that it received a total of 2,953 removal requests from judicial and administrative authorities between January 1 and June 30, and that it was asked to remove a total of 2,580 content. Meta shared that it removed a total of 2,445 content, 1,941 of which violated Turkish law and 504 of which violated Meta principles.

Meta stated that all of the content it removed in compliance with these requests was due to "catalogue crimes" and "protecting national security and public order,” contrary to the claims of government officials.

Meta did not provide any information on the remaining 135 items.

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) blocked access to Instagram, which has approximately 57 million active users in Turkey, on August 2. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Presidential Advisor Oktay Saral, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu, Minister of Justice Servet Tunç and Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Ömer Fatih Sayan said that Instagram was blocked because it did not comply with the access blocking order based on "catalogue crimes."

Lawsuit filed against journalist Barış Pehlivan

A lawsuit has been filed against Cumhuriyet daily columnist Barış Pehlivan over "writing about a person's membership in an association and his previous criminal record."

Pehlivan announced the development on his X account on August 8, stating that a lawsuit was filed against him over his article about an association that was found to have been founded by FETÖ and shut down by decree.

Meral Akşener files complaint against journalists

Former İYİ Party Chairperson Meral Akşener has filed a criminal complaint against journalists Ersin Eroğlu and Özlem Gürses over giving Erkan Yıldırım, one of the suspects in the case against crime ringleader Ayhan Bora Kaplan, the right to speak at the Parliament group meeting. In the petition submitted by Akşener's lawyer, Gürhan Kocaman, Yetkin Öztürk and Koray Aydın were held responsible for the incident.

In the TV show Kayıt Dışı on Tele1, dated 20 May 2024 and prepared by Özlem Gürses, Ersin Eroğlu, Caner Taşpınar and Masum Gök, it was reminded that Akşener gave the floor to Erkan Yıldırım at the İYİ Party Parliamentary group meeting on 13 October 2021.

Erkan Yıldırım, who is listed as a "suspect" in the Ayhan Bora Kaplan file, was told by Akşener: "This week we are hosting an industrialist brother at the rostrum of the nation. Erkan Yıldırım is among us. Here you go, Erkan brother, the floor and the rostrum are yours."

Journalist Derya Ren released

JinNews reporter Derya Ren, who was held in Diyarbakır Women's Closed Prison, was released on August 6.

Ren had been detained during house raids on October 25, 2022. Ren was sentenced to 3 years, 13 months and 15 days in prison by Şanlıurfa 6th High Criminal Court on charges of "aiding a terrorist organization." Ren was imprisoned after the sentence was upheld by the Court of Cassation in 2022. In May, Ren's release was postponed for three months by the Administrative and Monitoring Board on the grounds that she was "not ready to integrate into society."

Nearly 1 million websites blocked in Turkey since 2008

According to the Freedom of Expression Association, a total of 953,415 websites and domain names have been blocked in Turkey since 2008. According to EngelliWeb, the number of access bans in 2023 alone was 240,857.

According to the report announced on the EngelliWeb website, some of the websites blocked by the Rize Criminal Judgeship of Peace in 2023 on the grounds of "violation of personality" are as follows: YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Ekşi Sözlük, WordPress, Uber, Pinterest, Geocities, Alibaba.com, Google Sites, Dailymotion, Blogspot, SoundCloud, DW, VOATürkçe, Dropbox.

At least 25 journalist and media workers in prison

As of 9 August 2024, there are at least 25 journalists and media workers in prison in Turkey, either in pre-trial detention or serving a sentence.

The full list can be accessed here.