Journalists in Turkey see media domain narrowing as elections approach
Media workers under pressure mark Working Journalists Day and fear further clampdown on independent journalism.
ISTANBUL — The first 10 days of 2022 got off to a typically busy start for Turkey’s journalists with news of record inflation and growing discussion about possible early elections.
But amid the frenetic news cycle were reports of developments that have become all too familiar to the country’s media workers.
By the time politicians were tweeting their congratulations on Working Journalists Day on Jan. 10, Turkish courts had sentenced a cameraman to life in prison for allegedly “disrupting the unity and integrity of the state” and passed a 15-month suspended jail term for another journalist for allegedly engaging in terrorist propaganda.
Meanwhile, Nazan Sala, the reporter who received the suspended sentence, and four other journalists were acquitted of belonging to a terrorist organization by a court in the eastern city of Van.
