As Turkish courts continue to hand down prison sentences to more journalists, the European Parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution on human rights issues in Turkey, expressing deep concern about the ongoing deterioration of democratic standards in the country and the targeting of independent journalists, activists and opposition members.
The EP members in their resolution condemned the sentencing of journalist Bülent Mumay, who works for the Turkish edition of Deutsche Welle, viewing it as part of a “pattern of judicial harassment and censorship” against Turkey’s “independent media.”
The MEPs called on the Turkish authorities to drop the charges against him and all arbitrarily detained media workers, political opponents, human rights defenders, civil servants and academics.
Last year Mumay, who coordinates DW’s İstanbul bureau, was handed down a 20-month suspended sentence for “obtaining and publishing personal data without permission.” His appeal was rejected by a local appeals court in August. The journalist had posted on social media about Met-Gün Inşaat, a construction company with ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which had intervened in city politics and had public funds seized. His posts on X defied an official order not to report on the issue.
The MEPs also expressed strong disapproval of the intricate system of laws in Turkey that they said consistently suppresses and regulates journalists, urging Turkish authorities to reinstate judicial independence, uphold freedom of the press and uphold their international human rights commitments.
On the same day the EP adopted this resolution, two Turkish courts handed down suspended sentences to two journalists on charges of “inciting hatred and hostility among the people” and “disseminating terrorist propaganda,” according to reports by the Cumhuriyet daily and the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA).
An İstanbul court handed down a suspended sentence of 10 months to veteran journalist Can Ataklı on charges of “inciting hatred and hostility among the people” due to his remarks about the father of a slain soldier. The ruling was announced at the third hearing of the trial.
Another İstanbul court gave a suspended sentence of one year, six months to journalist Pelin Özkaptan for “disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organization.”
The sentence was due to Özkaptan’s social media posts regarding Eylem Ataş, who had lost her life when fighting against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Manbij, a city in Syria’s eastern Aleppo region, in 2016.
Rights groups routinely accuse the Turkish government of trying to keep the press under control by imprisoning journalists, closing down media outlets, overseeing the purchase of media brands by pro-government conglomerates and using regulatory authorities to exert financial pressure, especially after President Erdoğan survived a coup attempt in July 2016.
Turkey, which is known among the top jailers of journalists in the world, was ranked 158th out of 180 countries in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).