Two hundred and eleven Turkish authors, including the country’s sole Nobel laureate, Orhan Pamuk, protested a newly ratified Media Law that introduces one- to three-year prison terms for “spreading disinformation.” 

“As authors, we reject this censorship law that will plunge the country into deep darkness. [May] the truth of the people and the world [win] against the lie of the tyrants,” read a statement by those protesting the law.  

The list of authors included many of Turkey’s internationally known novelists and intellectuals, some of whom had faced time behind bars or exile. Poet, musician, politician and former Goodwill Ambassador to UNESCO Zulfu Livaneli was imprisoned several times during the 1971 Turkish coup because of his left-wing politics and lived in exile throughout the 1970s, returning to Turkey only in 1984. Oya Baydar, a left-wing sociologist and writer, faced exile after the 1980 coup and lived in Germany for 12 years. Asli Erdogan, who lives in exile in Germany, was arrested during the police raid on pro-Kurdish Ozgur Gundem in 2016 for being a member of the advisory board of the newspaper, a role authorities deemed to "support terrorism." After four months, she was released pending trial and left Turkey.  

“We will not be silenced,” the authors pledged.