20160503 - media freedom turkey

Media freedom in Turkey is regulated by domestic and international legislation, the latter taking precedence over domestic law, according to Article 90 of the Constitution (so amended in 2004).
Despite legal protections, media freedom in Turkey has steadily deteriorated over the last five years. Since 2013, Freedom House ranks Turkey as "Not Free".^[2] Reporters Without Borders rank Turkey at the 149th place out of over 180 countries, between Mexico and DR Congo, with a score of 44.16^[3] In the third quarter of 2015, Bianet recorded a strengthening of attacks on the opposition media during AKP interim government, with the censorship of 101 websites, 40 Twitter accounts, 178 news; attacks against 21 journalists, three media organs, and one printing house; civil pursuits against 28 journalists; and the six-fold increase of arrests of media representatives, with 24 journalists and 9 distributors imprisoned.
According to Freedom House,

The government enacted new laws that expanded both the state’s power to block websites and the surveillance capability of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). Journalists faced unprecedented legal obstacles as the courts restricted reporting on corruption and national security issues. The authorities also continued to aggressively use the penal code, criminal defamation laws, and the antiterrorism law to crack down on journalists and media outlets. Verbal attacks on journalists by senior politicians—including Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the incumbent prime minister who was elected president in August—were often followed by harassment and even death threats against the targeted journalists on social media. Meanwhile, the government continued to use the financial and other leverage it holds over media owners to influence coverage of politically sensitive issues. Several dozen journalists, including prominent columnists, lost their jobs as a result of such pressure during the year, and those who remained had to operate in a climate of increasing self-censorship and media polarization.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_freedom_in_Turkey