Turkey Continues Its Attempt To Pass China In The 'Most Journalists Jailed' Category
from the WEEEEEEEEEE-ARE-THE-CHAMPIONNNNNNNNS-MY-FRIEND dept
Turkey continues to be awful. The President of the country, Recep "Gollum" Erdogan, continues to fight his own personal brand of "War on Terror." So far, this "war" is mostly on critics and journalists, since actual terrorism isn't something Erdogan seems to care about as much as his own reputation.
Critics located all over the world have felt the proxy wrath of the frequently-besmirched PM. Some countries have been especially obliging, turning over their own citizens to face criminal charges for insulting the Turkish head of state.
Journalists all over the world are feeling the heel of Erdogan's boot, the size of which is inversely proportional to the thickness of his skin. Rather than limit his censorial efforts to the war at home, Erdogan frequently calls on US tech companies to engage in censorship on his behalf. Twitter is a favorite.
You're nothing if you're not on the leader boards. Erdogan sees himself as a living superlative. So it's no surprise his government is seeking to overtake the Red Granddaddy of Censorship -- China -- in the category of "Most Journalist Jailed." Presumably, the Guinness people will just mail him his award, rather than risk being swept up in his "War on Terror" for listing Nobel Prize winners or whatever.
More journalists have been convicted of crimes against Herr Erdogan. Unfortunately for the authoritarian, not too many of them will actually be jailed, which isn't going to help him overtake China in the jailed journalist race. Prosecution in absentia is the new normal for Turkey since local journalists have realized staying in the country means forced retirement from their chosen profession.
Alert Interpol, I guess, as though that international partnership is really interested in converting itself into an extension of Turkey's government. The "War on Terror" continues, with Turkish courts fighting the war at home by sentencing journalists self-exiling abroad.
A Turkish court on Friday convicted six journalists and one other employee of an independent newspaper of aiding the network of a U.S.-based cleric who is accused of masterminding the failed coup in 2016, the state-run news agency reported.
Conjecture and hearsay are kinds of evidence, the Turkish lawyers certainly argued. Some of those sentenced will actually be headed to jail post-appeal, since there's no reason to believe this kangaroo courtship will be annulled upon further review.
Others will just spend their sentences not living in Turkey, as the supposed coup "mastermind" is doing.
[T]he primary target of Erdogan's wrath is Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic scholar in his late 70s living in exile in the United States. Erdogan blames Gulen for masterminding the failed coup attempt. The government has declared Gulen's movement a terrorist organization.
Jailing someone in their late-70s seems unusually cruel. (We do it here so stop throwing stones.) But it's just not going to happen as long as Gulen lives in the United States. Anyone with any connection to Gulen is being branded a terrorist, even if most of them are just journalists who had nothing to do with the failed coup that has led directly to the jailing of over 100 journalists.
Criticizing Erdogan from abroad really doesn't do much to diminish his power at home. But it does keep him busy. It keeps his courts tied up trying cases of suspects the government can never jail and it keeps the busybodies in the censorship department active filing social media complaints. Now, if only we (the US and its tech companies) weren't so eager to help...
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: free press, free speech, intimidation, jailing, journalists, recep tayyip erdogan, turkey
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Gulen galls Gollum? 🤯
Geriatric geezer's genius gambit gobsmacks grandiose gormless git, goads goon's gizzards.
Good gracious!
Goodnight.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I still miss Phil Hartman.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why don't our governments complain about this more?
The reason is interesting...
You see, we're beholden to them to absorb the ever-increasing number of Russia/West proxy war refugees from Syria, Yemen, and other countries whose enemies we are selling weapons to. All we have to do is stop selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and getting involved in Iraq, etc., but that's not going to happen. Those wars won't fight themselves. O, what a tangled web we weave...
Sigh!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Subject line of the article
<sarcasm-mode>
Isn't Tim guilty of copyright infringement for quoting words from a Queen song without paying royalties and providing attribution? Where's the RIAA???
:P
</sarcasm-mode>
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Where's the RIAA???
RE: the above, suing a granny, a child...
They see dead people walking around like regular people. They don't know they're infringing. You know that tingle you sometimes feel at the back of your neck? That's how they know someone is infringing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
and he wants to be allowed to join the EU, where freedom is, supposedly, top priority (as long, at least, as it doesn't interfere with anything the Entertainment Industries are trying to do, such as surveillance, arrest, jailing of citizens for copying, ruining families, putting people into the position that taking their own life is the only option, taking full control of the Internet and a myriad of other shit situations!) if it happens, it'll be a bad day for the Planet, with WWIII on the near horizon!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why? And more to the point, what's the alternative? If someone in their late 70s commits a crime, what should be done with them? (Not taking any position on Gulen specifically, but if the article is going to state this as a general principle, it needs to be able to back it up as a general principle.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) were to betray America to Russia, while throwing America's Ukrainian and Kurdish allies under the bus? Sure, why not, lock him up. For treason.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Actually, if someone is convicted of treason, the penalty is death.....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
This. Even if a state or the federal government were to enact statutes that abolish the death penalty, a treason conviction could still result in an execution because it's actually written into the Constitution.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Erdogan’s actually Turkey’s President. The role of Prime Minister was abolished in Turkey back in 2018 (Erdogan was PM from 2003-2014).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Erdoğan just has some weird paranoia and envy regarding his former buddy Gulen. It's all just a personal shitshow. I wonder if they ever went after anyone actually involved in the coup attempt, other than the blatantly obvious military participants.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]