Turkish civil rights groups are taking legal action on a controversial circular issued April 30 by Turkey’s General Directorate of Security banning all audio-visual recordings of citizens and police at protests, in a further blow to press freedom in Turkey.
The Ankara Bar Association has demanded the circular be repealed. Its timing suggested that its immediate purpose was to prevent reporting on protests planned for May Day, when police brutality against demonstrators typically soars. In its petition to the Council of State, which adjudicates administrative decisions, the bar association noted that immediately after the circular was issued, police prevented a reporter from filming “disproportionate police violence” against demonstrators seeking to make their way to Istanbul’s Taksim Square.
For Turkey’s beleaguered media workers, the circular is simply an official stamp of approval on police violence against them. The figures speak for themselves. In a report issued May 3 marking World Press Freedom Day, the Turkish Journalists Union noted that in the past year alone, six journalists were beaten during police detention. A further 44 journalists were physically attacked on the job. Some 47 journalists are currently in jail on charges related to their work in the media, while 274 journalists were prosecuted in 128 different cases to do with their work or social media posts. Coupled with the near full control of the media by government cronies, this grim picture bolsters Turkey’s image in recent years as one of the most repressive countries for journalists in the world.
Turkey’s hard-nosed interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, has defended the ban, claiming that its purpose is to protect the privacy of individuals. “There is no breach of the constitution or of democracy,” he insisted. It will supposedly also prevent the police from being distracted while performing their duties. Rights groups claim the opposite, adding that the wording of the circular fails to clarify whether the ban applies to members of the press at all.
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