A Turkish court has ordered an access ban on the X accounts of 82 people including prominent journalists and politicians on accusations that they are disseminating terrorist propaganda, the Free Web Turkey platform reported.
The decision of a penal court of peace in the Black Sea city of Gümüşhane affects the X accounts of Kurdish politician Ertuğrul Kürkçü, journalists Amberin Zaman, Deniz Tekin, Öznur Değer and Berçem Mordeniz and the X account of the pro-Kurdish Yeni Yaşam newspaper, among others.
The court cited the protection of national security and the public order as the reason for its decision, which was initiated by a complaint from the Gümüşhane Provincial Gendarmerie Command.
The X account of German politician Cansu Özdemir, a member of the Hamburg parliament from the Left Party, is also among the blocked accounts.
According to the court, these X accounts spread terrorist propaganda, although the court fails to mention the name of any terrorist organization.
However, it is common for Kurdish politicians and journalists in Turkey working for pro-Kurdish media outlets to face legal harassment, stand trial and receive jail sentences for covering issues related to Kurds and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
Rights groups routinely accuse Turkey of undermining media freedom by arresting journalists and shutting down critical media outlets, especially since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan survived a failed coup in July 2016.
Turkey, which has been suffering from a poor record of freedom of the press for years, ranks 158th among 180 countries in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index published in May.