{"id":15043,"date":"2014-02-10T06:44:31","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T06:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irfs.org\/?p=15043"},"modified":"2014-02-10T06:44:31","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T06:44:31","slug":"grave-risk-to-media-freedom-in-turkey-as-journalist-deported-for-anti-government-tweets-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/news-feed\/grave-risk-to-media-freedom-in-turkey-as-journalist-deported-for-anti-government-tweets-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Grave Risk to Media Freedom in Turkey as Journalist Deported for Anti-Government Tweets"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

The deportation of the Azerbaijani journalist Mahir Zeynalov from Turkey is further proof of the Justice and Development Party (AKP)\u2019s increasingly aggressive crackdown on independent media and freedom of expression, Institute for Reporters\u2019 Freedom and Safety (IRFS) said today.<\/p>\n

According to Turkish newspaper,\u00a0Today\u2019s Zaman<\/a>, authorities decided to expel its journalist, an Azerbaijani national Mahir Zeynalov after he posted anti-government tweets. The newspaper says Turkish Prime Minister (PM) Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan filed a complaint against Zeynalov for \u201cdefamation and inciting public to hatred\u201d.<\/p>\n

This latest act comes amid a recent resurgence of repression that has included disparagement of journalists, the use of pressure tactics to encourage self-censorship, and the launching of criminal cases against reporters under broadly worded anti-terror and penal code statutes. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says\u00a0Turkey had\u00a040 journalists<\/a>\u00a0in prison\u00a0as of Dec. 1, 2013, accounting for almost 20 per cent of all reporters jailed\u00a0worldwide.<\/p>\n

The freedom of expression online is of particular concern. This week, the AKP-dominated Turkish parliament\u00a0approved a bill<\/a>\u00a0that would tighten government control over the Internet. The new law would allow Turkey’s telecommunications authority to block websites without first seeking a court ruling.<\/p>\n

Since December 2013, when a corruption scandal broke, the stories that purportedly discredit public officials haves panned social media, raising speculations that the bill aims to prevent dissemination of any damaging information online. Turkish PM has been openly critical of the internet, calling Twitter a “scourge” and condemning social media as “the worst menace to society”.<\/p>\n

IRFS resolutely condemns harassment and legal persecution of the Today Zaman\u2019s journalist Mahir Zeynalov amid a\u00a0frantic media crackdown<\/a>\u00a0in Turkey. \u00a0IRFS urges PM Erdo\u011fan and his government to accept criticism in the press and refrain from using criminal law against journalists. The charges against journalist Zeynalov must be dropped and all necessary conditions must be created for\u00a0 him to continue his journalism in Turkey, the organization said.<\/p>\n

Finally, IRFS calls on the President Abdullah G\u00fcl to veto the amendments to the Law 5651 on the Internet as they violate the constitution and international conventions that Turkey has signed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STATEMENT The deportation of the Azerbaijani journalist Mahir Zeynalov from Turkey is further proof of the Justice and Development Party (AKP)\u2019s increasingly aggressive crackdown on independent media and freedom of expression, Institute for Reporters\u2019 Freedom and Safety (IRFS) said today. According to Turkish newspaper,\u00a0Today\u2019s Zaman, authorities decided to expel its journalist, an Azerbaijani national Mahir […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-feed"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15044,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15043\/revisions\/15044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}