Turkey’s standing among worst jailers of journalists has improved in 2021, with Myanmar disrupting the top-five following the coup and subsequent crackdown in the country, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) 2021 report.
Currently, at least 18 journalists are behind bars in Turkey’s prisons, according to the CPJ. The country now ranks sixth globally, having released 20 journalists in the past year.
“However, it would be naïve to see lower prisoner numbers as a sign of a change of heart toward the press,” the CPJ said. “Turkey’s crackdown after a failed coup attempt in 2016 effectively eradicated the country’s mainstream media and prompted many journalists to leave the profession.”
Turkey’s effect on journalism is not limited to its own borders. For Saudi journalists, “the intimidatory effect of Jamal Khashoggi’s horrific murder and dismemberment in 2018 … is likely to have silenced many journalists more effectively than any fresh wave of arrests”, CPJ said.
Khashoggi was killed after entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. Turkey is conducting a separate trial on the matter, with suspects in absentia.
In 2021, China was the world’s worst jailer of journalists for the third year in a row, with 50 journalists behind bars. Myanmar moved to second place, followed by Egypt, Vietnam, and Belarus.
Globally, at least 293 journalists are currently jailed for their work, CPJ found. Forty out of the 293 journalists are women. At least 24 journalists were killed over their news coverage, while another 18 died in circumstances “too murky to determine whether they were specific targets”, it said.
Ahval