Concern Rises as New Turkish Media Law Squeezes Dissent

A recent wave of arrests targeted journalists working for Kurdish media outlets. Yasin AKGUL / AFP
A recent wave of arrests targeted journalists working for Kurdish media outlets. Yasin AKGUL / AFP
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Concern Rises as New Turkish Media Law Squeezes Dissent

A recent wave of arrests targeted journalists working for Kurdish media outlets. Yasin AKGUL / AFP
A recent wave of arrests targeted journalists working for Kurdish media outlets. Yasin AKGUL / AFP

A new law gives Türkiye fresh ammunition to censor the media and silence dissent ahead of elections in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to prolong his two decades in office, journalists and activists say.

Since 2014, when Erdogan became president, tens of thousands of people, from high-school teens to a former Miss Türkiye have been prosecuted under a long-standing law that criminalizes insulting the president.

The law, passed in parliament in October, could see reporters and social media users jailed for up to three years for spreading what is branded "fake news".

"Prosecution, investigation and threats are part of our daily life," Gokhan Bicici, editor-in-chief of Istanbul-based independent news portal dokuz8NEWS, told AFP at his news portal's headquarters on the Asian side of the Bosphorus.

"Being more careful, trying as much as possible not to be a target is the main concern of many journalists in Türkiye today, including the most free ones."

Press advocates say the new law could allow authorities to shut down the internet, preventing the public from hearing about exiled Turkish mob boss Sedat Peker's claims about the government's alleged dirty affairs.

Or, they say, the government could restrict access to social media as they did after a November 13 bomb attack in Istanbul which killed six people and which authorities blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Most Turkish newspapers and television channels run by allies toe the government line, but social networks and internet-based media remained largely free -- to the dismay of Erdogan.

Next June he faces his trickiest elections yet since becoming prime minister in 2003 and subsequently winning the presidency.

His ruling party's approval ratings have dropped to historic lows amid astronomical inflation and a currency crisis.

- 'Enormous control' -
Digital rights expert Yaman Akdeniz said the law provides "broad and uncircumscribed discretion to authorities" in its potential widespread use ahead of the election.

"It is therefore no surprise that the first person to be investigated for this crime is the leader of the main opposition party," he told AFP.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a likely candidate for president in next year's election, came under fire for accusing the government on Twitter over "an epidemic of methamphetamines" in Türkiye.

Bicici says the government already had enough ammunition -- from anti-terror to defamation laws -- to silence the free media.

Erdogan has defended the new law, however, calling it an "urgent need" and likening "smear campaigns" on social networks to a "terrorist attack".

Paradoxically, Erdogan himself has a social media account and urged his supporters to rally through Twitter after surviving a coup attempt in 2016.

The government maintains that the law fights disinformation and has started publishing a weekly "disinformation bulletin".

Emma Sinclair-Webb of Human Rights Watch said the government "is equipping itself with powers to exert enormous control over social media."

"The law puts the tech companies in a very difficult position: they either have to comply with the law and remove content or even hand over user data or they face enormous penalties," she said.

- Uneasy future -
Turkish journalists staged protests when the bill was debated in parliament.

"This law... will destroy the remaining bits of free speech," said Gokhan Durmus, head of the Turkish Journalists' Union.

Fatma Demirelli, director of the P24 press freedom group, pointed to "new arrests targeting a large number of journalists working for Kurdish media outlets since this summer."

"We are concerned that this new law... might further exacerbate the situation by pushing up the number of both prosecutions and imprisonments of journalists significantly," she told AFP.

In October, nine journalists were remanded in custody accused of alleged ties to the PKK, which Ankara and its Western allies blacklist as a terror group.

Ergin Caglar, a journalist for the Mezopotamya news agency that was raided by police, said despite pressure "the free media has never bowed its head until today, and it will not after the censorship law and the arrests."

Dokuz8NEWS reporter Fatos Erdogan said reporting is getting tougher, pointing out police barricades to AFP as she filmed a recent protest against the arrest of the head of the Turkish doctors' union, Sebnem Korur Fincanci.

"I have a feeling there will be more pressure after the censorship law," she said.

Erol Onderoglu of Reporters Without Borders who himself stands accused of terror-related charges, said the law "rejects all the qualities of journalism and having a dissident identity.

"I don't believe the future is going to be that easy."



Trump-Putin Summit Preparations Are Underway, Russia Says

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via video link in Moscow, Russia February 22, 2025. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via video link in Moscow, Russia February 22, 2025. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)
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Trump-Putin Summit Preparations Are Underway, Russia Says

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via video link in Moscow, Russia February 22, 2025. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via video link in Moscow, Russia February 22, 2025. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)

Preparations are underway for a face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia's deputy foreign minister said Saturday. It marked a clear departure from Western efforts to isolate Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

Speaking to Russian state media, Sergei Ryabkov said a possible Putin-Trump summit could involve broad talks on global issues, not just the war in Ukraine.

“The question is about starting to move toward normalizing relations between our countries, finding ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, of which there are many, Ukraine among them,” he said.

But he said efforts to organize such a meeting are at an early stage, and that making it happen will require “the most intensive preparatory work."

Ryabkov added that US and Russian envoys could meet within the next two weeks to pave the way for further talks among senior officials.

Russian and US representatives meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday agreed to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, an extraordinary about-face in US foreign policy under Trump. Senior US officials have suggested Ukraine will have to give up its goals of joining NATO and retaining the 20% of its territory seized by Russia.

After the meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told The Associated Press the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies; to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks; and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation.

He stressed, however, that the talks, which were attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and other senior Russian and US officials, marked the beginning of a conversation, and more work needs to be done. Lavrov, for his part, hailed the meeting as “very useful.”

No Ukrainian officials were present at the Saudi meeting, which came as their beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops, nearly three years after Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its smaller neighbor.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not accept any outcome from the talks since Kyiv didn’t take part. European allies have also expressed concerns that they are being sidelined.

Trump appears to soften criticism of Kyiv

Trump on Friday appeared to walk back his earlier comments that falsely blamed Kyiv for starting the war, but insisted that Zelenskyy and former US President Joe Biden should have done more to come to terms with Putin.

“Russia attacked, but they shouldn’t have let him attack,” he said during a radio interview with Brian Kilmeade of Fox News, referring to the Russian leader.

Russia’s army crossed the border on Feb. 24, 2022, in an all-out invasion that Putin sought to justify by falsely saying it was needed to protect Russian-speaking civilians in eastern Ukraine and prevent the country from joining NATO.

Later on Friday, at the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that the war “doesn’t affect the United States very much. It’s on the other side of the ocean. It does affect Europe.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose position on Ukraine has differed sharply from the European mainstream, appeared to echo some of the Trump administration's recent rhetoric on Saturday. He described Hungary's war-ravaged neighbor as a “buffer zone” between Russia and NATO and implied Budapest might block Kyiv's efforts to join the EU.

Ukraine's European allies

Thousands of people waving blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags marched to the Russian Embassy in London on Saturday, demanding Ukraine be given more support and a place at the table in talks to end the three-year war.

Protesters chanted “Trump you’re no friend, you’re a traitor to Ukraine.” Organizers called for the withdrawal of Russian troops and increased military aid to strengthen Kyiv’s hand.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is due to visit Washington next week for talks focused on Ukraine. He has stressed that no decisions about the country’s future can be made without Kyiv’s involvement.

Starmer spoke to Zelenskyy on Saturday and reiterated “the UK’s ironclad support for Ukraine and commitment to securing a just and enduring peace to bring an end to Russia’s illegal war,” the prime minister’s office said.

Ukraine’s EU allies also seemed to rally around it, as the country’s foreign minister on Friday and Saturday held a series of bilateral calls that he said aimed to coordinate diplomatic efforts at a time of intense uncertainty over Washington's position.

According to Andrii Sybiha’s social media posts, he has been speaking with top diplomats from France, Spain, Poland, Finland and the Baltic states, among others.

“Allowing Putin to succeed would have disastrous consequences for the stability and common way of life of every family in Europe and the US. The cost of appeasement will be paid by ordinary people,” Sybiha said in a post on X on Saturday.